1988 Shuttle Mission Within Seconds of Disaster

There's a long and interesting article here on a secret Space Shuttle mission in 1988 that nearly turned into a Columbia-like disaster. It was only the second mission flown following the Challenger disaster, and had this mission failed with a loss of life, the whole Shuttle program could have ended.

One of the astronauts on this mission was Mike Mullane whose book I've read a couple of times. Looks like you can get it pretty cheap at Amazon these days, and if you're a space buff, it's a great read. Well worth the $0.01.