Catching things falling from space is actually something that was done pretty regularly in the past. Before we had digital imaging sensors spy satellites had to

Catching things falling from space is actually something that was done pretty regularly in the past. Before we had digital imaging sensors spy satellites had to rely on film. Orbiting imaging platforms would 'drop' film canisters, which would be caught by waiting aircraft, and flown back to a processing center to be developed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_%28satellite%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_%28satellite%29