The heavy icebreaker USCGC Polar Star escorts the Stena Polaris, the largest fuel tanker ever to reach McMurdo Station, through the ice-covered Ross Sea during Operation Deep Freeze 2026 on Jan. 21, 2026. (Madelyn Greene/U.S. Coast Guard)
SEATTLE — The U.S. Coast Guard’s only heavy icebreaker returned to its homeport Monday following a 23,000-mile mission to clear channels for scientific stations around Antarctica.
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star deployed from Seattle in November on the 146-day mission supporting Operation Deep Freeze, the annual icebreaking assistance mission for the U.S. Antarctic Program.
“I am so proud of how this crew, once again, brought their best energy and worked together through every single challenge this year’s mission presented,” said Capt. Jeff Rasnake, commanding officer of the Polar Star.
The Polar Star is the United States’ only surface vessel capable of providing year-round access to both Polar Regions. The 399-foot heavy polar icebreaker has a displacement of 13,500 tons and is 84 feet wide with a 34-foot draft. The six diesel and three gas turbine engines produce up to 75,000 horsepower.
The Polar Star cleared a 7-mile channel with its reinforced hull capable of breaking ice up to 6 feet thick at a speed of 3 knots. The ship escorted the 600-foot fuel tanker Stena Polaris into and out of Winter Quarters Bay through an icy channel to deliver more than 6 million gallons of fuel to McMurdo Station, the prime American research center on the continent.
The icebreaker also freed the Australian cruise ship Scenic Eclipse II, which had become stuck in unexpectedly thick ice on Jan. 17. The Coast Guard said the operation took six hours to remove the ship from the ice and then escort it 4 miles to open water.
The cutter, commissioned in 1976, marked its 50th year of operating with the Coast Guard and its 29th trip to Antarctica.
Operation Deep Freeze enables “continuous critical scientific research in one of the most remote regions on Earth,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
In one of its last actions in Antarctica, the Polar Star removed the 4,200-ton floating ice pier from Winter Quarters Bay into McMurdo Sound during a joint operation with the National Science Foundation.
After cargo operations were complete, the Polar Star conducted its final escort of the season to bring the tug Rachel through late-season pack ice to deliver the new NSF Discovery Pier to McMurdo Station.
“This multiyear effort culminated this year with the remarkable trek of the pier from Oregon to the McMurdo Sound, and teamwork between the Coast Guard, National Science Foundation, U.S. Navy Seabees, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the New Zealand Antarctic Program and Tug Rachel for its installation.”
The U.S. Coast Guard operates two medium icebreakers, USCGC Healy and USCGC Storis. The Coast Guard announced contracts in December for a joint U.S.-Finland project to build up to six new Arctic Security Cutters.
