Free Republic

An emergency medical situation prompted a demanding mid-winter evacuation from the United States’ McMurdo Station in Antarctica, officials said this week. The evacuation was officially made by representatives with the United States’ National Science Foundation over concerns that medical care could not be administered to Americans stationed in Antarctica, including one individual who reportedly required “urgent medical care” and two others in need of medical attention. The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) successfully carried out a challenging emergency evacuation using one of its C-130J Hercules aircraft, according to a statement released on Wednesday. Citing extreme temperatures and rapidly changing...

The coronavirus pandemic has suspended efforts to save the Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo Station, the hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program. But one Catholic who regularly serves at the station has said he hopes the chapel has a permanent future at the station. “We had probably the only place in the world where you would go to Midnight Mass (for Christmas) and have to wear sunglasses inside the church, because the sun was so bright,” said Robert Mullenax, a Catholic meteorologist who works for a NASA contractor. “The Chapel of the Snows faces south and at midnight, with...

<p>The National Science Foundation says two technicians working on a fire-suppression system at an Antarctica scientific station were found unconscious and died.</p> <p>The foundation said Wednesday the two had been working in a building at McMurdo Station, which is on Ross Island. It says they were found on the floor by a helicopter pilot who had landed after spotting what appeared to be smoke from the building.</p>