"The causes of the failure are still unknown," said Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the space agency.

A Navy spokesman said at the time that the missile lifted off successfully from a submerged position, but strayed from its trajectory several minutes into the flight.

"It could have triggered a self-destruct system," he said, adding that a special commission would conduct a detailed investigation into the incident.

A similar test conducted September 7 also failed when a testing program error in the second stage of the flight caused the missile to miss its designated target.

The R-30 Bulava (SS-NX-30) ballistic missile, a naval version of the Topol-M ballistic missile, was developed at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology. It can carry up to ten nuclear warheads and has a range of 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles).

The first in-flight test launch was conducted September 27, 2005 also from the Dmitry Donskoi, a Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine.

On December 21, 2005, another Bulava was launched from the Dmitry Donskoi in the White Sea before traveling thousand miles to hit a dummy target at the Kura test site, on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was the first time a Bulava had been launched from a submerged position.

Russia's Borey-class nuclear submarines could be equipped with Bulava missiles as early as 2008, the missile's chief designer said in April.

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