Volna booster rocket blasts off from the Borisoglebsk type nuclear submarine at this undated file picture at the Barents Sea

Russian space officials say a satellite designed to monitor changes in the polar ice caps has crashed into the Arctic Ocean.

Officials say they lost contact with the European research satellite, CryoSat, shortly after its launch from northern Russia's Plesetsk launch pad Saturday.

The Russian news agency Itar-Tass quotes the director general of the Khrunichev Space Center Alexander Medvedev as saying the carrier rocket's booster control system failed.

The satellite was developed to monitor the speed at which the polar ice caps are melting.

Russia's space agency suffered another setback on Saturday, when search crews were unable to locate an experimental spacecraft launched Friday from a submarine in the Barents Sea.

That craft, called the Demonstrator, is designed to carry cargo and passengers into space. It was built for the European Space Agency and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company.