  We present first science observations taken during the commissioning
activities of the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE)
instrument on the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission. SPICE is a high-resolution
imaging spectrometer operating at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. In
this paper we illustrate the possible types of observations to give prospective
users a better understanding of the science capabilities of SPICE. The paper
discusses the first observations of the Sun on different targets and presents
an example of the full spectra from the quiet Sun, identifying over 40 spectral
lines from neutral hydrogen and ions of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, neon,
sulphur, magnesium, and iron. These lines cover the temperature range between
20,000 K and 1 million K (10MK in flares), providing slices of the Sun's
atmosphere in narrow temperature intervals. We provide a list of count rates
for the 23 brightest spectral lines. We show examples of raster images of the
quiet Sun in several strong transition region lines, where we have found
unusually bright, compact structures in the quiet Sun network, with extreme
intensities up to 25 times greater than the average intensity across the image.
The lifetimes of these structures can exceed 2.5 hours. We identify them as a
transition region signature of coronal bright points and compare their areas
and intensity enhancements. We also show the first above-limb measurements with
SPICE above the polar limb in C III, O VI, and Ne VIII lines, and far off limb
measurements in the equatorial plane in Mg IX, Ne VIII, and O VI lines. We
discuss the potential to use abundance diagnostics methods to study the
variability of the elemental composition that can be compared with in situ
measurements to help confirm the magnetic connection between the spacecraft
location and the Sun's surface, and locate the sources of the solar wind.
