Celebrating IceCubeâs first decade of discovery For news media The IceCube Laboratory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. It was the beginning of a grand experiment unlike anything the world had ever seen. Ten years ago today, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory fully opened its eyes for the first time. Over the course of the previous seven years, dozens of intrepid technicians, engineers, and scientists had traveled to the South Pole â one of the coldest, driest and most isolated places on Earth â to build the biggest, strangest telescope in the world. Crews drilled 86 holes nearly two-and-a-half kilometers deep and lowered a cable strung with 60 basketball-sized light detectors into each hole.