I thought a major flaw in the 'spy balloon' angle was that it was almost as visible as the moon (as shown by the bloke filming it comparing them, shown in all the bulletins) - bit of a design flaw in a spy ballon ('damn we made it too big!'). Was it like that spinal tap Stonehenge situation? (but no, actually we're the Nigel Tufnell character, being gaslighted with this shit and mostly not even noticing how ridiculous it is, even when they tell us)