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
Portuguese Navy eight frigates and five other ships. The Portuguese naval forces comprised only three small patrol boats, one each in Goa, Daman and Diu, and the old sloop , based in Goa. Besides its mission of facing the enemy naval units, "Afonso de Albuquerque" was also tasked with serving as coastal battery for the defense of the Mormugao harbor, as well as providing vital radio communications with Lisbon after on-shore radio facilities had been destroyed in Indian air-strikes. "Afonso de Albuquerque" engaged in the last conventional battle fought by the Portuguese Navy to the present day, when, at the 12h00 of