Oh c’mon folks, enough with the mysteries! The military launched a secret payload into orbit, that’s all. They are all denying it because they need to do that. It was not a threat to the US, it was, simply a deniable mission so cool your jets folks...
Why couldn’t that be the contrail of the US Air flight? The Setting Sun illuminates it. You would think that this is a common phenomenon....
Look up in the sky most any day around 5pm....on a clear day...you’ll see dozens of these. What is different is the angle.
If they told you, it wouldn’t be a secret.
Right, as we all know that everything is always perfectly innocent in this big pink fluffy world of ours so there is no chance at all that this might be something foreign and undesirable. How silly of us to even consider it!
You do not launch West for orbital payloads in the US.