[Barnacle Bill]

I think the root problem here is easy to fix via a mod, since the changes in V1.19. I would say that satellites were probably intended to be a defensive weapon, set out at a sector you wish to defend in advance of combat. Frankly, I find the practice of laying them offensively during combat to be abusive. The fix is to set the parameter in the satellite bay component for the number of satellites you can launch per tactical turn (i.e. during combat) to 0. Leave the other value, for the number you can launch per strategic turn (i.e. outside combat) alone. Then you can use satellites as I'm pretty sure they were intended, rather than as an invincible early-game offensive weapon.