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.

An unmanned Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Wednesday, February 11, 2015, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. On board is the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which will head toward a solar-storm lookout point a million miles away. (Photo by John Raoux/AP Photo)

Cory Ritz braces himself as a wave bursts onto a pier at the Boynton Beach inlet on August 25, 2011 in Boynton Beach, Florida. Hurricane Irene is moving over the Bahamas and could still be a major storm as it approaches the North Carolina coast the morning of August 27. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

U.S. President elect Barack Obama kisses his wife Michelle as Vice-President elect Joe Biden (right) embraces his wife Jill after Obama gave his victory speech during an election night gathering in Grant Park on November 4, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A boy collects drinking water from a hand pump in Kutubdia, Bangladesh on March 30, 2016. Kutubdia is one of many islands affected by some of the fastest recorded sea-level rises in the world. The island has halved in size in 20 years. (Photo by SIipa/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Tommy Lindsey holds an enormous maple leaf that he found in Mount Vernon, Wash., October 28, 2013. Lindsey was walking with his family when he picked up the leaf that is more than two feet from stem to tip and more than 21 inches wide. (Photo by Frank Varga/The Skagit Valley Herald)

Elementary school sumo wrestlers compete in the sumo ring during the Wanpaku sumo-wrestling tournament in Tokyo, Japan July 30, 2017. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)