The designations by the Office of Naval Research of its summer arctic expedition as “Project Mushrat” and its equatorial expedition later on, as “Project Churchy” evolved, one is told, from the use of balloon‐launched Deacon rockets on the former expedition and from the prevalence of turtles on the Galapagos Islands, the site of the latter work. The purpose of both projects was to make comprehensive series of high altitude observations of the primary cosmic radiation, and the pressure, temperature and density of the atmosphere near the geomagnetic north pole and the equator.