Are any artificial satellites visible from Earth? Under dark skies, you may be able to see one or even several of the hundreds of artificial satellites orbiting Earth almost any night of the year. Look for a faint starlike object moving steadily across the sky. Because the light from the satellite is entirely reflected sunlight, satellites will frequently "blink" in and out as they rotate and different areas of their surfaces face the Sun. Furthermore, as they pass into the darkness of Earth's shadow, they appear to vanish altogether. Spotting geostationary satellites, whose positions remain fixed above Earth, is a bit trickier and requires exact location data.
The space shuttle and International Space Station also are visible from Earth.
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