V iewing satellites can be a lot of fun.
Most amateur astronomers will have seen an Iridium Flare . Space stations Mir and ISS are often seen too. But the brightest manned satellites are the US Space Shuttles. T he Shuttle fleet consists of four orbiters since the Challenger -accident in 1986, Columbia , Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour . They can reach magnitude exceeding -1 on overhead passes.