Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado, December 27th, 1999.

Around 20 Russian soldiers arrive at the second floor of building 1840, a U.S. Space Command office complex inside the facility.

They occupy a stuffy windowless room stuffed with dozens of desks, computers and monitors, and a large video display in the front.

Also, one red telephone connected in the secure line to Russia.

At this very moment, approximately 2,440 nuclear-tipped American missiles are primed

and ready to launch at a moment's notice.

In Russia, 2,000 more are pointed in the opposite direction.

Both of these countries have decades of experience, building, pointing and threatening to launch rockets.

This time, though, they're extra worried that somebody might just press a big red button, and they have a good reason to be.

15 miles southwest of Peterson Air Force Base lies a dark steel tunnel leading directly inside of a 10,000 foot high mountain.

Burrowed inside of this mountain through a military checkpoint and behind the giant steel door lie top secret

operation centers for the Air Force and North American Aerospace Defense

Command, NORAD, plus a command and control center and an ultra-sophisticated missile detection system.

Thanks to decades of Cold War, America's turn of the century network of satellites, radars and Sensors can detect SCOD missile firing off from well

over 20,000 miles in space, then instantly feed that data to operators at Cheyenne Mountain.

Millions and millions of dollars have gone into building, modifying, and keeping this system up to date

and resilient to small bugs.

Russia, by contrast, does not have quite a sophisticated system

and they haven't fully invested in updating it.

For this reason, both Russian and US leaders are worried

about an imminent potentially catastrophic situation.

At the stroke of midnight on December 31st 1999 as Russia enters its next millennium,

...