UFOs

[IT Minion]

Thousands - hundreds, whatever I was just making a distinction between "above" the earth and some distance away - in the background as it were. As for size - difficult to say. You mean no one else on earth looking up into the sky didn’t see it from the ground - no they would not be able to see it from the ground

People see starlink satellites from the ground with the naked eye and they're 11m across at the same altitude as Starship.

Then again maybe the glowing blue object was more subtle than a satellite designed to have low reflectivity.

Even making basic estimates for speed and the change in size the object was not beyond the planet, it roughly halved in scale after only ~700km. That would mean it is only 700km or so away to start with. Since you're clearly weak on scale that's less than 1/10 th the diameter of the earth, not enough to be behind the planet. Did they set down in Roswell again?

Lens flare does not appear from behind something like this object does

Of course it can, lens flare is a product of light bouncing around the lens in a way it shouldn't. If you have light coming in from just the right angle to produce the classic blue lens flare we see here, and then move it gradually out of the perfect angle it'll move out of shot and disappear.

Watch more JJ Abrams movies, they are both more realistic than your current watch list and also will show you the full range of lens flare options available.