Amazing work. I'm in love with the overall visual style, the main menu and the sound design. The controls are tight and intuitive, and the game has an old school feel that is equal parts addicting and punitive. Love the sense of humor. Kudos to your wife for the title!
Hopefully constructive feedback:
I found myself a bit frustrated at times knowing exactly when my shield was about to drop. Sometimes I would try and collect an asteroid right as it was going down, only to explode while the indicator on the ship was still (seemingly) active. Either allowing a little leeway window, or giving some kind of flashing indicator on the ship/shield itself might alleviate this. The UI elements in the corner look great, but I found in the middle of the run I didn't want to ever look down there, because I was laser-focused on my ship and dodging projectiles.
It also took me a few runs before I realized that the asteroids you carry can be used defensively as well as offensively. I'm not actually sure if it was intended, but I progressed further once I realized I could reliably keep a few towers down.
Minor nitpick: it was sometimes difficult at times to differentiate between the "background" space ruins, vs. what was foreground and impassable. A couple times I ran into or got caught on the foreground parts and died as a result. Also, on my very first run I completely avoided the background bits because I assumed I'd crash if I hit them. This may just be due to the colors on my monitor not being clear.
Overall, amazing job. This was a joy to play. Thank you for sharing it!