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 he remained under what he considered to be imprisonment. In September 1509, Sequeira tried to establish contact with the Sultan of Malacca but failed, leaving behind 19 Portuguese prisoners. Afonso was released after three months' confinement, on the arrival at Cannanore of the Marshal of Portugal with a large fleet. The Portuguese Marshal was the most important Portuguese noble ever to visit India and he brought an armada of fifteen ships and 3,000 men sent by the King to defend Afonso's rights, and to take Calicut. On 4 November 1509, Afonso became the second Governor of the State of India,