I’ve seen strange jet contrails when a plane is viewed as being on the observers horizon, but at the angle the photo showed, I’m not sure. I’m thinking some gov project they don’t want to talk about.
I don’t think it was a secret government project. They wouldn’t have launched it where it could have been seen from shore. They would have shut down the airspace to prevent hitting an aircraft. It would have been done from Vandenberg AFB or in the middle of Pacific. The government would have a credible cover-story ready and could have prevented all this guessing.