We’re all familiar with America’s worst spacecraft moments, those that took a disastrous, fatal turn. But less well known are the “almosts,” the difficulties astronauts faced that could have been catastrophic.

Those are the focus of “Secret Space Escapes,” a series that begins on Tuesday night, Nov. 10, at 10 on the Science Channel. The first segment is on Jerry M. Linenger’s frightening experience on the Mir space station in 1997: On Feb. 24, a faulty oxygen canister began shooting fire.

Then the first respirator Dr. Linenger strapped on didn’t work. He began, he recounts, “feeling my way along that bulkhead, trying to locate a second respirator that, to be honest with you, I wasn’t sure was there.”

The program re-enacts the incident rather harrowingly, but things worked out all right. Dr. Linenger stayed on Mir for another three months, returning safely to Earth in late May.