[Cpt_Clyde]

Don't let people turn you off Sci-fi (or any setting) just by making you think you need to have all the answers to all the setting questions, because you don't. And I find I am unable to even create campaigns this way. Too overwhelming and seems to block my natural creative process.
Instead of worrying about all the high level setting/campaign details first, why not just dream up a few "scenes" that you think would be cool to play out. You must have something in mind or you wouldn't have wanted to play a Sci-fi Intrigue based game in the first place. I would start with scene description like:
While being marched across a bridged chasm inside a large ship by the patrol some sort of mutiny breaks out; a hand full of Imperial elites start attacking star patrol officers. The PCs are caught in the cross-fire/brawl on treacherous footing while artificial gravity starts to fail.

So there's something I might like to play out with my PCs. I'd go from there fleshing out why they are there in the first place (maybe this is the opening scene and they're all being held captive on a patrol ship for various crimes or false accusations etc.). The mutiny is actually an inside job for a competing faction, who are after something.... maybe one of the PCs. The double cross will try to be covered up somehow, etc.

Then take the PCs into account. I have a player who wants to be a martial artist. Fine, maybe the location of the fight is near sensitive ship systems so larger weapons are holstered and a close-quarters brawl/melee/pistol fight breaks out giving the martial artist equal chances. I have another player wanting to play a techie. He can attempt fix the gravity-generator issue etc.

There, now I've got a scene (maybe an opening scene) that gets the game rolling and will start answering setting questions simply by being talored to PC specific fun factor.
And the beauty of sci-fi is you can make use off a very wide range of tech and even force the PCs into using old tech if necessary. I am just building a TL10 space opera game myself and have decided I don't want to bother knowing what factions are where or even how space travel works since they stated they pictured themselves starting out as bounty hunters on a backwater planet on the fringe of some galaxy. Once they finalize their PCs I will tailor the setting to them. If for some reason none of them took Energy-Rifle skill I will probably stick them in a poor planet where these things are rare. Heck maybe they are using slug throwers and knives and driving around old diesel powered rovers.
Start small, don't plan big scale if you don't have to, and when you do let the character sheets answer the questions as much as possible (unless you have a more fun idea). After all, a character takes certain skills because he thinks it would be fun to do that kind of thing. This all helps me avoid burn out and creating awesome setting details no one ever discovers. Also builds in fun-factor for players.
If this style sounds like it might work for you PM me for more details (I'm currently trying to document the process to make it an easy step-by-step process for myself and can share with you for "testing" purposes).