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
Fajã de Fernando Afonso Fajã de Fernando Afonso The Fajã de Fernando Afonso is a permanent debris field, built from the collapsing cliffs on the northern coast of the civil parish of Rosais, in the municipality of Velas, island of São Jorge, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The fajã was named for an early settler that occupied a home at the base of the cliff. Following the 1 January 1980 earthquake the area was temporarily abandoned, owing to its instability and the aftershocks. Because of the danger, farmers returned to the area to only cultivate their small vineyards. A subsequent aftershock was