Hi,
I have good and bad news.
Good news, I'm actually getting pretty good at this game now! I have no idea how, either. I think I just started sort of subconsciously getting a feel for what does and doesn't work. I can't even explain why I couldn't get debris earlier, because now I have no problem with it :)
Bad news, I found a pretty big bug. On wave 4, my ship starts slowing down tremendously. First the max pitch of the radar beeps decreases, then my projectiles slow down. Eventually the slowdown progresses to the point where I can't move fast enough to chase down satellites.
If it'd help, I'd be willing to record a bit of wave 4 to show what it does. Not sure if that'd be helpful or how you'd want to coordinate that though. hope it can easily be remedied in any case.