Starship Asterisk*

On st patty's day of this year, between the hours of 7pm and 9pm, a couple of friends and i were standing outside talking and just watching the stars when we observed what at first looked to be the biggest plane any of us have ever seen but it was just one color which was a really bright blue and was not flashing and made no noise at all. It traveled almost all the way across the sky going about as fast as a jet and was visible for close to three minutes when it slowly began to get dimmer and it just vanished. Now I'm not going to jump to conclusions and say its a UFO... But id like to know if you would be able to help me understand what we saw, or if anyone you knew saw it too. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a comet cause it was not traveling that fast and didn't leave a trail, i know it was not a shooting star cause Ive seen hundreds and know what they look like, i know it was not a plane of any kind cause it was waaay too big for one and there were no planes around to be dropping flares and i know what those look like also so it wasn't that.. a few of my neighbors witnessed this too along with a couple other people that we know miles away from here. I have not been able to find anything about such a thing anywhere on the net and i have not been able to stop thinking about it at all since it happened and I myself have seen some pretty strange stuff happen up there but nothing quite like this... Can anyone help me?

If the crossing was from a westerly direction to an easterly direction, It sounds like the ISS passing overhead. Typically brighter than Venus now, and in it's night time visible crossing path, The International Space Station would appear very bright now. There would be no visible markers (green or red Flashing lights) as those seen on aircraft so it would appear to be of uniform color. Passing from west to east (SW to NE or NW to SE) at about this time of night, the station would be strongly illuminated as it appeared in the west, take between 3-5 minutes to travel accross the sky, and fade out as it crosses into the Earths' shadow.
Every once in a great while you will get to see a crossing from NNW to SW at the right point in time for the ISS to be illuminated by the red sunset light. A real RED lightshow.