Science News Roundup: Earliest-known galaxy offers clues about the primordial universe; All-private astronaut team lifts off on landmark launch to the space station

The observations suggest HD1 formed stars at a staggering rate - perhaps about 100 new stars annually - or instead harbored what would be the earliest-known supermassive black hole, they added. All-private astronaut team lifts off on landmark launch to space station A SpaceX rocket ship blasted off on Friday carrying the first all-private astronaut team ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS), a flight hailed by industry executives and NASA as a milestone in the commercialization of spaceflight.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Earliest-known galaxy offers clues about the primordial universe

Astronomers have discovered what may be the earliest and most distant galaxy ever observed, one that formed relatively soon after the Big Bang event that marked the origin of the universe and maybe populated by the novel first generation of stars. The galaxy, called HD1, dates from a bit more than 300 million years after the Big Bang that occurred about 13.8 billion years ago, researchers said on Thursday. The observations suggest HD1 formed stars at a staggering rate - perhaps about 100 new stars annually - or instead harbored what would be the earliest-known supermassive black hole, they added.

All-private astronaut team lifts off on landmark launch to the space station

A SpaceX rocket ship blasted off on Friday carrying the first all-private astronaut team ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS), a flight hailed by industry executives and NASA as a milestone in the commercialization of spaceflight. The four-man team selected by Houston-based startup Axiom Space Inc for its landmark debut spaceflight and orbital science mission lifted off at 11:17 a.m. EDT (1517 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

(With inputs from agencies.)