The short answer is, yes you can see satellites from the ground. You have to look in magazines such as Sky and Telesope or Astronomy to find out what will be visible from your location. For some of the shuttle flights when their orbits come far enough north of the equator, you can see them as a bright, rapidly moving star in the west in the very early evening. I have personally seen a few satellites myself. They are always visible within an hour or so after sunset. Any later and the satellite is completely in the shadow of the Earth and unobservable. The brightness range for satellites can extend from slightly fainter than the brightest star you can see, to roughly the limit of your vision at a magnitude of about 6. It depends on how large the satellite is, and how reflective.
If you want, I can provide a rough calculation to demonstrate this, but I prefer not to do so at this time. If you want to go to a place on the Internet where you can check up on what satellites are visible from your location, click SatPasses .