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
João Afonso de Albuquerque his wife and their only son were subsequently buried. Between 1323 and 1324, he married his cousin Isabel Téllez de Meneses, the tenth Lady of Meneses, and daughter of Tello Alfonso de Meneses and Maria of Portugal, granddaughter of Afonso III of Portugal. One son was born of this marriage: João Afonso de Albuquerque had several children out of wedkock with Maria Rodrigues Barba, daughter of Rui Martins Barba and Iria Martins Alardo: He had another son with María Gil: João Afonso de Albuquerque João Afonso de Albuquerque, (28 September 1354), Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque in Spanish and nicknamed "o