McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

Revellers take part in New Year's Eve celebrations in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 31, 2020. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

The launch of a rocket into space is projected on Dubai's Burj Khalifa on February 9, 2021 as the UAE's “Al-Amal” – Arabic for “Hope” – probe's to Mars carries out a tricky manoeuvre to enter the Red Planet's orbit. A tense half-hour today will determine the fate of “Hope”. If successful, the probe which is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, will become the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month. (Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/AFP Photo)

A man wearing a mouth-nose protection to protect against the coronavirus walks past a department store window with the words “BACK TO LIFE” in Schwerin, Germany, Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Photo by Jens Buettner/dpa via AP Photo)

A model presents a creation from Dior's Cruise 2021 collection during a live-streamed runway show without an audience due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the Piazza del Duomo, in Lecce, Italy on July 22, 2020. Christian Dior hosted a live but audience-free fashion show in the Italian city of Lecce, in a dazzling celebration of local crafts and traditions that included a dance spectacle in the middle of the baroque main square. (Photo by Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)

A small Leatherback sea turtle heads towards the sea during the sunset at Lhoknga beach in Aceh province on February 25, 2023. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

Contrasted against the white flowers in a cotton field, a brown bear is out for a ramble just after midnight in the second decade of July 2023 in Kainuu, Finland, where the sun does not fully set for more than 70 days in the summer months. (Photo by Jane Jeffrey/Animal News Agency)

A Palestinian boy stands next to a damaged car following an Israeli raid in Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on October 20, 2023. (Photo by Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)