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Recently, Breakthrough Starshot tested 6 Sprites in orbit around Earth. For those who don't know, these tiny 4-gram probes (sometimes called Star Chips) are planned to go to the Alpha Centauri and Proxima systems, being accelerated by light bouncing off huge graphite "sails". They would travel at 20% light speed, reach their targets in 20 years, and send their data back on a 4-year trip to Earth. While there was quite a lot of planning for these things, none have been officially tested until now. Based on the article, it seems like this test was to see how the tiny interstellar probes work in the vacuum of space and how well they connect/transmit data to each other. It was reported that all Spites were "performing as designed". http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/prototype-star-chips-called-sprites-are-being-tested-in-orbit-ahead-of-a-proposed-visit-to-alpha-centauri/news-story/211d7e4b2db9d124e619a6b1c38689ab Finally, after years of waiting, humanity is making its first big step on the road to interstellar travel.