The test launch of a Russian RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile likely failed earlier this month, according to experts and satellite images from the launch site.

In photos taken on September 21 by maxar satellite, shows a crater about 60 meters wide in the launch silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia and damage to the surrounding area, which was not visible in photos taken earlier this month.

It is not clear from the images whether it failed to launch Sarmatianof a liquid propellant rocket, or if an accident occurred while refueling it.

“By all indications, it was a failed test. There’s a big hole in the ground,” says Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based analyst who heads the Russian Forces Project at the Center for Arms Control Studies. .

“There was a serious incident with the missile and the silo.”

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment and has not made any announcements in recent days about planned Sarmat tests.

The 35-meter-long RS-28 Sarmat missile, also known as the Satan II, has a range of 18,000 kilometers, a launch weight of more than 208 tons, and can carry up to 16 independent nuclear warheads that can hit different targets, as well as some Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, according to Russian media.