>>213098581>>213098907Sure but there is the possibility of either curing aging so spending years in a spaceship wouldn't be such a big deal(and spend the time in VR or a nice o'neill cylinder) or some form cryo sleep(although that would likely require similiar technology to curing aging since you'd need to be able to restore all frost damaged cells in a body).
A interstellar space ship could also easily look this, a rotating space habitat with an engine.
The idea of spending decades cramped in something like current tiny space ships would obviously be ridiculous.
There are also other possibilities like for example sending robots with frozen embryos to colonize other systems.
But sadly without FTL travel or communication a true galactic empire will obviously never be a thing(maybe an empire spanning 10 light years or so would be feasible), just different independent colonies.