SEATTLE — The nation’s last heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, left Seattle Sunday on a four-month mission to Antarctica as part of the annual operation to resupply the McMurdo station.
The Coast Guard says the mission will require the Polar Star to break through more than 12 miles of ice in McMurdo Sound, as much as 10 feet thick.
The 400-foot Polar Star has a crew of 140. It’s 38 years old and the only U.S. icebreaker capable of crushing through thick Antarctic and Arctic ice.
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