Space

By ANDREW MEIER/MOSCOW

The Russians may launch an obscure Welsh-born, U.S.-based garbage-treatment tycoon into space--if he can come up with the $100 million needed to keep Mir aloft through 2000. The Russian government announced this year that it will have to wean Mir of funding this fall in order to pay for completion of the Russian modules for the International Space Station. So Energiya, the state corporation that built Mir, created a subsidiary to raise hard currency. That's when PETER LLEWELLYN, 51, head of Microlife, a Minnesota company specializing in waste disposal, heard his calling. Paunchy and with a graying beard, he is not quite the image of a NASA poster boy. But Energiya claims he's got the right stuff, that he's fit to fly and is a licensed pilot. Llewellyn, however, conceded to the Moscow Times that he's 112 lbs. overweight and, though he was certified to pilot a Cessna in 1976, has not flown a plane in 19 years. Still, Energiya says if Llewellyn can raise $100 million, he gets a week of room and board on Mir this August.

--By Andrew Meier/Moscow