The European Space Agency's astrometry satellite Gaia was launched in December 2013 and started its scientific operations in July 2014 after an extended payload commissioning period.We report on the status of the core astrometric data reduction, using the Astrometric Global Iterative Solution (AGIS) and observational data from the first ten months of Gaia science operations. AGIS is a global, simultaneous least-squares estimation of all relevant satellite attitude, payload calibration, and astrometric parameters of selected, well-behaved single stars.After years of testing and validating AGIS with simulation data we now present preliminary results from trial runs with real mission data. These tests give astrometric post-fit residuals at a level commensurate with overall expectations, considering that at this stage of the mission our understanding of the relevant instrumental effects and the behaviour of the very complex payload is still limited.The positive results also indicate that a target date of summer 2016 for a first public release of a Gaia-only astrometric catalogue is feasible. In addition we report on experiments with joint Gaia and Tycho data that allow a useful astrometric solution with less than 1 year of Gaia data.