Star Fire was very popular back in the day. We also used the old TSR 'Star Empires'. Star Fire - maybe you should check it out. Their edition 3? I believe was for running a campaign where the 'PC' was a star faring empire. I also used to run single player campaigns of TSR's Star Empires back in the day and people very much enjoyed it. As for playing something like this where you are a person, not an empire...I have something like that planned as I flush out my Insidious Horizon universe where you/your group are nobles inheriting an estate in a family-based/quasi-feudal but very mercantile 'empire' based around Antares. Huge back story/don't want to put in spoilers but essentially a group of Romans from near the fall of the Roman Republic (not empire) were transplanted for {backstory/reasons not wanting to spoil} and have had a couple thousand years to gestate and gain spaceflight. This sounds like something you are saying. However, I haven't done any work down that path in that universe yet. Unfortunately, Roll20 community has not expressed much interest in this universe when I put an advert on it a couple weeks ago...I might just have to stick to local, in-person groups but haven't decided yet.
