Not to belittle this crisis, but wouldn't anything on earth be visible from space as long as it's not covered with something?
Yes. Anecdotally a friend of mine had to climb over a fence at Vandenberg Air Force Base in the late 1970's and a high resolution satellite picture of him was presented the next morning as evidence. All that to just give him a slap on the wrist. His ID badge was clearly readable. I have no idea how many of these satellites existed back then.