  The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed its five-month
Survey Validation in May 2021. Spectra of stellar and extragalactic targets
from Survey Validation constitute the first major data sample from the DESI
survey. This paper describes the public release of those spectra, the catalogs
of derived properties, and the intermediate data products. In total, the public
release includes good-quality spectral information from 466,447 objects
targeted as part of the Milky Way Survey, 428,758 as part of the Bright Galaxy
Survey, 227,318 as part of the Luminous Red Galaxy sample, 437,664 as part of
the Emission Line Galaxy sample, and 76,079 as part of the Quasar sample. In
addition, the release includes spectral information from 137,148 objects that
expand the scope beyond the primary samples as part of a series of secondary
programs. Here, we describe the spectral data, data quality, data products,
Large-Scale Structure science catalogs, access to the data, and references that
provide relevant background to using these spectra.
