In what could be a scene from a science-fiction film, NASA and the European Space Agency have tested an “interplanetary Internet” connection by having an astronaut on the International Space Station control a small robot on Earth.

Space-focused missions and experiments have gotten hot once again in the wake of the Curiosity Mars rover, SpaceX’s private spaceflights, and Felix Baumgartner’s epic free-fall from space to Earth. Adding to the list, the U.K. government just announced it would increase its funding to the ESA by about $95 million.