I'd seen this before, but without the references to the rocket boosters. Nice touch that last part. But in all likelihood it's one of those urban legend things. Without having checked, I am going to guess that the SRBs are shipped by plane. We have some darned big military transport planes, and I know for a fact that rockets made on the west side of Denver are brought by truckt to Buckley AFB, which I can see from my back deck. There, they are loaded onto a RUSSIAN transport plane and carried off to Canaveral. The Russian plane is actually larger than our C-5s and C-17s. And I'm pretty certain these rockets are Saturns (NOT the automobile!), much larger than the SRBs. The SRBs, if shipped empty, ought to be a trivia cargo in comparison to a Saturnl. And I cannot imagine shipping them loaded, particularly when the fuel can be poured in and allowed to solidify anyplace.
I've a friend who works for NASA; I am going to forward this to him and ask if he's seen anything or can find out anything to corroborate or refute.
The rest of the story, though, certainly has an aura of believability about it.
Late breaking news:
I'll be darned. They DO use rail! See below from my NASA friend.
Yes, I have seen this before - including the part about NASA. What I can
tell you is that the segments of the SRB are shipped by rail and are then
assembled at KSC (uprighted, mated to other segments, etc.). The original
design for the shuttle called for a two stage vehicle with both stages being
reusable - first stage was to be a fly back element and the second the
orbiter you see today. Due to decisions in the Nixon administration (ah,
the history) because of budget considerations, a compromise system had to be
developed. Thus we got solid rocket boosters, an external tank (very large
fuel/oxidizer container), and the orbiter. What decisions drove the SRB
designers at Marshall SFC, I don't know. I do know that in the 80s the
Congress was about to approve a new SRB facility at Yellow Springs, MS and
that the new boosters would be shipped by barge to KSC (as the external tank
arrives now). So, I leave it to you to figure out who the horses asses are.
