The Polar Star leaves port in Seattle (November 2019) to begin Operation Deep Freeze, an annual ice-breaking mission in Antarctica. Families gathered to send off the 399-foot vessel and its crew. The Polar Star is currently the United States' only heavy ice breaker and its mission is to create a navigable path through ice - sometimes over twenty feet thick - to allow a resupply vessel to reach McMurdo Station — In 2020, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Polar Star embarked on a rare mission north to the Arctic. They will spend the majority of their mission in darkness.
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