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 asked King Manuel I to leave to the son all his wealth and that the King oversee the son's education. When Afonso died, Manuel I renamed the child "Afonso" in his father's memory. Brás Afonso de Albuquerque, or Braz in the old spelling, was born in 1500 and died in 1580. Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, Duke of Goa (; 1453 – 16 December 1515) (also spelled Aphonso or Alfonso), was a Portuguese general, a "great conqueror", a statesman, and an empire builder. Afonso advanced the three-fold Portuguese grand scheme of combating Islam, spreading Christianity, and securing the trade