Okay, lemme think...
Navigation should, for the most part, require Astronomy and the Compass, but you
could feasibly skip one or the other. Having both should make getting Navigation easier than only having one of them.
Obviously, Sailing is needed (no questions asked) before you can hope to get to Navigation (which in the context of Civ games is really just "Advanced Sailing"), but I think there's an argument to be made against absolutely requiring Education before you can go from Sailing to Navigation, but that having Education should make it easier.
And as I stated before, you'd never win a Civ game if you teched Satellites before anything else, so it's not like it would ever be a successful strategy. You're really making my point for me, here. If it takes you 5,000 turns (a number I pulled out of my colon, by the way; I haven't sketched out any math on this idea) to develop that tech, you lose (and you probably lose within the first 100 turns, at that).
Case closed.
So while the option might be available, it's an obviously stupid decision to make. If you want Satellites faster than anyone else, get its research cost down to a level where you can focus on science and gun for it by picking up techs that facilitate the development of that technology... but don't tell me that I absolutely have to have Rifling to develop Satellites...
In the end, all I've been saying is that, if designed intelligently, such a tech system would promote strategic teching and meaningful decisions as your civilization advances.
I appreciate all of your constructive criticisms.