A Navy spokesman said the missile lifted off successfully from a submerged position, but that it deviated from its trajectory several minutes into the flight.
"It could have triggered a self-destruct system," he said, adding that a special commission will conduct a detailed investigation into the cause of the incident.
A similar test conducted September 7 also failed when an error in the testing program during the second stage of the flight caused the missile to miss its designated target.
The R-30 Bulava (SS-NX-30) 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 thousands of 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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