The Motivation

From a Wired article on Richard Branson, the "rebel billionare" head of the Virgin Group who wants to commercialize private space travel:

"Most of the Mojave crowd got the space bug as kids launching backyard model rockets or, like Rhutan, watching Wernher von Braun explain Mars missions on The Walt Disney Show. Not Branson. He became interested in extraplanetary travel watching Jane Fonda in Barbarella as a teenager. 'I saw it again when I was 21. I'd just been circumcised for health reasons, and I popped my stitches.'"