Nasa launches $10bn James Webb space telescope

Successor to the Hubble telescope takes off on board rocket from ESA's launch base in French Guiana

The most ambitious, costly robot probe ever built, the $10bn James Webb telescope, has been blasted into space on top of a giant European rocket.

Engineers reported on Saturday that the observatory - which has been plagued by decades of delays and huge cost overruns - was operating perfectly after going through the most nervously watched lift-off in the history of uncrewed space exploration.