When this happens, I really wish they would implement the same checkpoint system you get in the story missions, so you at least get some progress saved!
I'd be surprise the game can tell the difference if it's an animal error or a boot/leave to orbit / game due to other errors.
They already have so many issues they're trying to fix, this is be very low priority as it can potentially leads to people glitching it for checkpoints at Nightfall.