In which ocean is Ascension Island?
Ascension Island Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56' south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of Brazil. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around to the southeast. The territory also includes the sparsely-populated Tristan da Cunha archipelago, some to the south, about halfway to the Antarctic Circle. The island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day. It was an important
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