Many years ago I was at Dugway Proving Ground when NASA was supposed to catch the Genesis Space Probe under parachute with "hollywood stunt pilots" flying A-Star helicopters with long probes mounted on the front, to hook the parachute in mid-air.

It all would have worked out swimmingly if the parachute on the Genesis would have opened, but an installation error caused it not to and for the probe to smash into the ground, leaving some very confused and disappointed helicopter pilots, among others.

Space is hard.