[Laser] Laser retroreflectors on Sats

[Tom Becker]

 > ... Instead of the nice long 10 or 15 second brightening due to the 
sun having a half degree source size, lasers -being point sources-
would have a much shorter length of maybe only a few milliseconds (a 
guess) not to mention a much smaller area over which they could be seen.

But isn't the geometry simply wrong?  Iridium birds are stabilized to 
keep solar panels perpendicular to the Sun, aren't they?  If that is so, 
I don't believe there is any Iridium orbit position where the 
mirror-like panels - in which we see the Sun's reflection during an 
Iridium flare - will reflect an Earth-borne source back to the Earth.  
Is that wrong?

Tom