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
NRP Afonso de Albuquerque (1934) stated purpose of defending the territory against possible Japanese invasion. In February 1942, in response to the Australian and Dutch occupation, Japanese forces invaded Timor. Japanese forces occupied Timor until the end of the Second World War, at the end of which Portugal sent a naval and military expedition to re-occupy and reconstruct East Timor. "Afonso de Albuquerque" escorted the troopship "Angola", which carried the first Portuguese troops of the expedition, reaching Timor on 29 September 1945. Late in 1961, unable to convince Portugal to relinquish its integrated territories in the Indian subcontinent, India launched Operation Vijay to seize Goa