Ascension Island a staging point by the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island hosts one of four ground antennas (others are on Kwajalein Island, Diego Garcia, and Cape Canaveral) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system. NASA operates a Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension Island for tracking orbital debris, which is potentially hazardous to operating spacecraft and astronauts, at a facility called the John Africano NASA/AFRL Orbital Debris Observatory. In 1501, the Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque sighted the island on Ascension Day (which fell on 21 May that year) and named
Afonso de Albuquerque Albuquerque" (1884) and the warship NRP "Afonso de Albuquerque", the latter belonging to a sloop class named Albuquerque. The fabled Spice Islands were on the imagination of Europe since ancient times. In the 2nd century AD, the Malay Peninsula was known by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy, who labeled it 'Aurea Chersonesus"; and who said that it was believed the fabled area held gold in abundance. Even Indian traders referred to the East Pacific region as "Land of Gold" and made regular visits to Malaya in search of the precious metal, tin and sweet scented jungle woods. But neither Ptolemy, nor