The flight test of the Bulava missile, carried out on October 25, 2006, ended in failure shortly after the launch. The launch was conducted at 17:05 MSK (13:05 UTC) from the Dmitry Donskoy submarine of the Northern Fleet deployed in the White Sea toward the Kura test site in Kamchatka.

This was the fourth full-scale flight test of the missile and the second failure in a row. The previous launch, on September 7, 2006, failed because of the malfunction of the first stage at the time of ignition. The cause of today's failure is unknown. According to the early reports, the missile was destroyed by the self-destruct mechanism after it veered off course shortly after the launch.