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 European to reach Chinese land by sea, and, the first European to enter Hong Kong. In 1514 Afonso de Albuquerque, the Viceroy of the Estado da India dispatched Rafael Perestrello to sail to China in order to pioneer European trade relations with the Chinese nation. Rafael Perestrelo was quoted as saying, "being a very good and honest people, the Chinese hope to make friends with the Portuguese." In spite of initial harmony and excitement between the two empires, difficulties soon arose. Portugal's efforts in establishing lasting ties with China did pay off in the long run; the Portuguese colonized Macau,