India, Oct. 30 -- The Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) launch of NVS-03 at 11.51pm on Friday is an attempt to bolster NavIC - India's answer to GPS - which has been unable to give a position without foreign navigation systems since March because too few of its satellites are working.

GPS is the US government-owned system that most services and institutions rely on to find a location and keep time. India built NavIC so that it would not have to depend on a system controlled by another government, especially in times of a conflict. But the project has been dogged by failing atomic clocks, a satellite lost at launch and another that never reached its working orbit.

The system currently has three satellites providing navigation s...