Imaginative Tales, September 1956

This September 1956 issue of Imaginative Tales features the science fiction novelette "Operation Disaster" by Hobart Colton Granger. The story follows Mark Channing, a newly trained Operation Disaster agent boarding an interstellar vessel bound for the planet Purname. Carrying the burden of his father Anson Channing's mysterious death on a previous Purname mission two decades earlier, Mark encounters conflicting accounts of his father's legacy. Otto Spade, a former crew member, defends Anson's character, while Hurley Jamison's daughter confronts Mark with accusations that his father violated the Corps's code by interfering with Purnamese religious beliefs, precipitating disaster. Mark learns the Purnamese are sun-worshippers whose star is now destroying their world. The issue also contains a non-fiction article about male menopause and a satirical piece about an Illinois man filing legal claim to outer space as "Celestia."