NASA launches $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope to explore earliest stars and galaxies

In a mission more than two decades in the making, NASA launched the most expensive science probe ever built Saturday, a $10 billion telescope that will attempt to capture starlight from the first galaxies to be born in the fiery crucible of the Big Bang.

Billions over budget and years behind schedule, the James Webb Space Telescope finally got off the ground Christmas Day, rocketing up from the European Space Agency's launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, at 7:20 a.m. EST atop an Ariane 5 rocket.

The workhorse European booster, built by Arianespace...