Space Combat: Taspan Ambush

Pretty sure this mission is bugged at the moment. The shuttle you're escorting seems to fly into a few asteroids and takes massive damage, to the extent that with about 40+ seconds of the mission left, it explodes from a little bit of laser fire. Very similar to the video that someone else posted.

Real shame. I've outfitted my ship with level 3 gear, and after 5 attempts, gave up when I realised the defector pilot drives worse than my wife.

Completing this mission awards the title the Pilot.

In light of this reward, I'm guessing that mission is supposed to be difficult. I, too, failed many times before I took the advice of others here and went crazy taking out turrets on the ships right at the start. For the most part, these ships are the same ones that show up later in the mission, so taking out the turrets early saves you damage after coming out of the asteroid field. Taking that advice, I was able to complete the mission several times in a row in full level 3 upgrades. Definitely hectic, but fun.

There are a few instances in these space missions where NPC ships fly into asteroids or other debris. If it damages your ship, it will damage their ship. A prime example of this is the Nez Peron Sweep where a ship comes on screen from the lower right and smacks into an asteroid before you can even get a shot off.

From running Taspan Ambush a few times it appears that the same thing is happening to the shuttle but since it is tougher than standard ships it "survives" its collision only to then be easy pickings for the turrets and enemy ships. Without the massive influx of damage from the asteroids this mission becomes more readily accomplished.

Edit: A huge change in running this mission came for me when I upgraded my video card and removed some frame rate issues I had because my old card took exception to particle effects. Without the lagging frame rate the mission became much easier. It is also important to note that this mission becomes available a little sooner than the Starship Upgrades to complete it do. If you can't beat the mission wait a few levels until you can better improve your ship and the run will be easier.

I have gotten to >95% success rate on this mission. If I pay attention and don't mis-step, I pretty much always complete it successfully.

I have all level 2 ship upgrades except for the beam charge and beam generator, which are both level 3. I also have the Power Conversion Module, which I set to blast cannon (key 1) at all times for this mission. This mission is all about going on the offense.

As many people have said, spamming missiles on the captial ship turrets is a key. That part is definitely true. So spam as much as you. However, there are 2 other pieces I feel that has not been called out, and I've found them to be key to my success:
1. When you exit the canyon, pay attention to the top left. There's a capital ship there that's fully armed. Hit as much as you can before it disappears. Once it disappeared focus on clearing the little ships, but keep an eye on the top left corner of the screen. That capital ship will reappear. As soon as it does hit it with all your can. Don't wait till the missiles are fully loaded. As soon as one is available hit it.
2. Once you've taken down enough of the turrets in that last capital ship, make sure you take out the small attack ships early. At this point the ship you are escorting is so low in health that any little damage can take it out. So it's important to take out the incoming attaching ship early, before they get to the target. Most of the hits will come from the left side, and then the last ones come from the right side. Take them out as soon as they appear on the screen.

With the above, you should be able to succeed in this mission.

I did this pretty easily with level 3 upgrades and it's standard easy one with level 4 upgrades.

The big key as people note is to take out the Cruisers as much as possible prior to entering the Asteroid. They show up again later off screen which is a pain because you can't destroy them. Most of the Cruisers turrets now take a missile + shot to take out (or just shooting) so I find it's best to just pepper the them with missiles while holding down fire. Another thing is during the asteroid area, there's a wave of around 6 fighters that are on screen only for a short moment which you need to shoot at which is what causes the escort to lose so much shield/HP. Once you see it and know where they appear it's pretty easy to handle them. Finally, when you come out of the asteroid there's a frigate on the left. Try to take out as much as possible in the short time it's on screen. It will be shooting the entire time off screen otherwise which is another reason why the guy tends to die.