I have been at the airport briefly, twice. Once on the way into the Falklands, once on the way out. Both in the early 2000s, both times on an RAF Tristar. I was a contractor going down there for a months worth of work, surrounded by civilians and military on my flights.

I remember being there on the way down middle of the day and all the army guys were grabbing beers. It was 35C and I was necking water. I thought they were crazy. I am told there are parts of the island that get hotter.

On the way back, middle of the night, 4am I think we landed. I remember thinking the plane was too warm, and I couldn't wait to get some fresh air. I stood by the door as it opened waiting for the cool breeze to come in. Nope: wall of hot air. It was in the 30s.

There's nothing there, really. It's obvious who runs the comms stuff, and it's obvious why it's kept the way it is, but nobody will talk about it.

A few people I spoke to have ventured further afield.

The lady I stayed with in the Falklands who ran a B&B told me she had holidayed there. It was beautiful, apparently.

A friend of mine was stationed there during the Falklands War helping refuel planes. It was hell, apparently.

This BBC article references Ascension Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island

A bit disappointed--was expecting something more along the lines of physics abnormalities, I guess. After reading the article, everything seems to make sense, in terms of human activities: the official UK denial over residents' right of abode; the secrecy over hilltop-stationed communications equipment; the lack of Leendert Hasenbosch's remains; Joseph Hooker's re-engineering of the islands environment, as well as subsequent efforts, over the ensuing decades.

I'm heading there in a month or so, then onwards to St Helena - I have a penchant for wanting to visit weird and remote places. Taking a drone, I might post footage here.

Getting permission to visit is a laugh, I had to write to the governor and explain why I want to come (last sailing of last mail ship).

That's terraforming. Before humans got there, it was bare volcanic rock.

As for the radio stations, there's a LORAN station, to provide a navigational marker in the South Atlantic. NASA had a tracking station there for Apollo, but it was closed and abandoned in the 1990s. The USAF has a tracking station there now, for communicating with various space assets.[1] As an intercept station, it would be marginal; there's nobody to listen to.

[1] http://www.patrick.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet_print...

Asencion island must be very important to NASA... It's almost exactly in the spot where satellite cargo launching to GEOS orbits must make a second burn to correct their orbital inclination when launching from Kennedy.

If you want to see more about Ascension island, check out the Departures episode about it. Here's a short clip from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYJHxN4lXCc

The full version can be found by searching, kat, etc. BTW the whole Departures series is great, for those who love traveling (or wish they were traveling).

From the Wikipedia article, Ascension boasts what's sometimes called the world's worst golf course. I'm on my way ^_^

Of course it's sad they lost the native species, but otherwise Darwin's plan is really interesting. They increased the biomass of the island and got forests to grow.

Mods, can we make the title less click-baiting? Perhaps by appending “(Ascension Island)” to the end?

Very _Dune_.