Would love for there to be an easier way to place satellites as close as possible. As far as I know, the only way to do that at the moment is by slowing down time while flying away from a satellite and placing it as soon as you can.
I think the biggest friction point in that regard is that you jump to full speed immediately, so small movements/adjustments become very difficult. An acceleration curve was on my todo list, but it was lower priority than everything else I was able to squeeze in before the jam deadline. I was just thinking now that I could also maybe implement a button that gives slow/precise movement, but the game already does have a lot more controls than I had originally intended! Either would be on the roadmap for any post-jam development.
I'm not sure whether you've unlocked it, but if you haven't, there's an upgrade that shrinks the placement radius, and you might actually find a little extra space between satellites to be beneficial.
Today's patch updates things to make small ship movements much easier. Would love to hear if that helps with the satellite placement troubles you had!