New historical evidence has emerged of a shocking incident between thesuperpowers that almost turned the Cold War into a hot one. Fingers crept toward the nuclear trigger and launch codes were prepared when American military andintelligence agencies discovered a U.S. shuttle was under attack by a Soviet superweapon. President Ronald Reagan, fully briefed, considered ordering a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Russians after he learned that the space shuttle Challenger, still in orbit, had been shot at by a high-energy laser traced back to a mammoth high-tech military complex in the U.S.S.R.

The remarkable story, brought to light by Clark C. McClelland, former ScO (Space Communications Office) for the Space Shuttle Fleet at the sprawling Kennedy Space Center in Florida, appears as a chapter in his book, the Stargate Chronicles.