A self aggrandizing TV advertising executive named Jed Cochrane is sent to the moon along with his secretary, a psychiatrist, and a team of TV producers to document a revolutionary discovery made by a neurotic scientist, Dabney, who just happens to be the son-in-law of one of the advertising firm's owners.

Shortly after their arrival, the team learns that Dabney is a fraud. Yes, a scientific breakthrough in faster than light communication was made, but by Dabney's employee, a physicist named Jones. Dabney merely purchased credit for the discovery, which has no practical use at the moment.

Nevertheless, Cochrane devises a scheme to portray this achievement as one of the most significant in human history... by making a TV show about faster than light space exploration.

This story was intended as a spoof of the television and advertising industries as well as the future of mass communication. While Leinster achieves this, he does so with yet another cast of stereotypical, two-dimensional characters. This is a failing that seems to plague several of Leinster's novels. In the case of Operation: Outer Space, however, every character suffers the additional affliction of being thoroughly unlikeable. ( )

This book was part of my birth year challenge. While reading, I kept in mind that it was written in 1954. It was such a fun read! Part Twilight Zone and part Dick Van Dyke! The "science" is crazy and the mis-matched group that make up the ship's crew are great. I'll be laughing for days. ( )

An enjoyable story that, however, did not leave much behind. It describes a society based on advertising and the efforts of a small group of people to fund an interstellar expedition by selling television rights on their adventures. ( )