The tests were first reported by Hanson Baldwin and Walter Sullivan of "The New York Times" on 19 March 1959, headlining it as the "greatest scientific experiment ever conducted". This was an unauthorized publication that caused an uproar in the scientific community because many of them were unaware of the presence of artificial particles in the Earth's atmosphere. Approximately nine ships and 4,500 people participated in the operation. After the completion of testing, the task force returned to the United States via Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.