Space: For Another $100 Million, We'll Throw in Ukraine

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...