Rare home video footage of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle tragedy has been uncovered. Originally shot by Steven Virostek, the video has been made available online exclusively to The Huffington Post.

Hope Virostek's jacket was adorned with so many space shuttle mission patches that she'd run out of room for more.

In fact, one of the reasons she and her husband, Steven, chose to retire to Titusville, Fla., a town that's known as "Space City, USA," was its proximity to Kennedy Space Center, the launch site for space shuttle missions.

The couple, who had moved from Rhode Island in the early 1980s, were regulars at launches; they became so well-versed in the launch sequence that they knew exactly how many seconds would pass between liftoff and when the solid rocket boosters would separate from the orbiter.

"They went to all the space shuttle launches," Tricia Hunt, the Virosteks' niece, told The Huffington Post. "It was a very big passion for them. They would go at 3 a.m. and get the best seats."