The task force headed for Ascension Island, a British territory in the mid-Atlantic 3,700 nautical miles (6,900 km; 4,300 mi) from the UK and 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi) from the Falkland Islands. It had about a thousand inhabitants, all contractors or employees of British or American companies that included Cable & Wireless, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Wideawake Air