Original painting of an MSC-012 ‘Blue Goose’ aircraft, an early prototype of the Space Shuttle Orbiter from 1970. Accomplished in watercolor on a 21 x 16.25 artist board, the painting shows the long-necked aircraft, with four air-breathing engines under the fuselage, preparing to land on a runway tarmac. Additionally, a matching overlay cel incorporates three diagrams of the peculiar aircraft as part of the open sky; this final image was used for the NASA photo S70-6121. The painting is signed in the lower right corner by the artist, “JLE.” In fine condition. Accompanied by an award certificate presented to “Dr. Chris Kraft” by the Texas Aerospace Scholars for “supporting 15 years of High School Aerospace Scholars.” The consignor notes that the painting derives from the family estate of famed NASA flight director Christopher Kraft.
Caldwell C. Johnson, Chief of the MSC Spacecraft Design Division circulated drawings of Orbiter Configuration 012, which he termed the ‘Blue Goose.’ ‘This latest concept,’ in the words of Johnson's cover letter, ‘embodies several new features not before incorporated in any Shuttle configurations that we have seen.’
First appearing in the fall of 1970, the Blue Goose design initially proposed the radical idea of having a sliding mechanism built into the vehicle so that the entire wing could be translated 12 feet fore and aft to compensate for center of lift shifts. It was quickly realized that this was impractical, and various attempts to provide conventional solutions to the problem were applied to the same basic design.
Two different versions of the design seem to have been proposed, one with a tee-tail and the other with a more conventional stabilizer arrangement. Both designs featured variable-geometry canard surfaces mounted low on the nose. A deorbit engine, protected during ascent by a 'swing-down' nose-cap, was in the extreme nose, followed by a crew module, and then a large payload compartment. An LO2 tank was above and just forward of the wing, followed by a LH2 tank, and finally by two rocket engines in the extreme aft fuselage. It was determined that this configuration would have extreme heating and structural problems, and the design was abandoned.
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