The current Star Wars d20 rules is Saga. It's pretty good, certainly it's an improvement over the earlier Revised Core Rules.
Another D20 alternative is D20 Modern, which also has a Future supplement.
If you want a change, there is an older system called Alternity that was eventually bought out by WOTC and killed off in favor of D20 Modern.
The loyal fans of Alternity still maintain their own website:
http://www.alternityrpg.net/
Another generic rule set is GURPS. http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/
Or you can get D6: http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=468
My two recommendations would be Mutants & Masterminds or Savage Worlds.
Both are flexible games that have a fair amount of sci-fi setting conversion material available on the web.
Mutants & Masterminds:
Pros:
1. Incredibly flexible yet rooted in d20.
2. While billed as a superhero RPG, it easily can handle sci-fi (fantasy, too).
3. Multiple conversion/character builds can be seen on the atomicthinktank.com boards.
4. One or two-book buy-in. Hero's Handbook & Gamemaster's Guide.
5. You can build any piece of gear or power using the core rules.
Cons:
1. You're building everything yourself. For the players, it's a breeze, but there's an up-front cost to the GM to build out things for the setting. However, once done, you're all set.
Pro & Con:
1. Focuses on the abstract. This is a feature for the most part, but for some settings, things like called shots, ammo, etc. matter. For those that don't, here's an example: Rather than having a hero die, a player burns a hero point to take a critical hit (punctured lung, broken arm, etc.) -- it's designed to reinforce that in the comics, complications like this are plot devices. It's a great, and innovative mechanic, but takes some getting used to.
Savage Worlds:
Pros:
1. Incredibly flexible with shallower learning curve. Tagline of Fast, Furious, Fun! is not an exaggeration.
2. Multiple sci-fi setting conversion available on the web ranging from Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, & Star Trek.
3. Low entry cost/buy-in - core rulebook is a $10 PDF and will cover 90+% of what you would need. Everything else is optional/examples.
4. PCs are heroes and mechanics lend themselves to heroic results through "raises" - if you roll the highest # on your target die, you roll again and add the result.
5. Detail without sacrificing speed of play - called shots, wounds, chases, vehicle combat -- everything a good sci-fi action movie would have is there.
6. Wide support. From official sci-fi supplements for Gear & World-building to 3rd-party supplements, there's a lot of great Savage Worlds material to mine.
Cons:
1.Pretty significant departure from d20-style games. Quick to learn, but different.
Having used both for sci-fi campaigns, my recommendation would be Savage Worlds. I use Pathfinder for my fantasy RPG, but sci-fi doesn't lend itself well to RPGs with that depth of detail. In my experience, by the time the "robot book" or "spaceship book" gets published, the game or setting is on the decline. You want detail but you don't want to spend hours statting up a starship or a piece of gear -- that's where Savage Worlds edges out Mutants & Masterminds, IMO.
Finally, while I love GURPS, and found it to be incredibly fast to run once you know the rules, I can't recommend it unless you have tons of free time. Everything is so detailed that with work, wife, & kids I just didn't have the kind of time available to prep things in GURPS. Yes, you can sacrifice detail as needed, but the detail is a huge selling point of GURPS.
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I think you should take a look on Traveller. It's pretty open and well oriented to the space opera theme.
Traveller
It's pretty fun. Also, I highly recommend the character creation chapter.
A good RPG to play that is sci-fi is the Fantasy Flight's Warhammer 40k series of games. Depending what type of game you want to play, there is: Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Black Crusade, and Only War. It is a grim universe that is always at war. It has a lot of history and background for the game. You can even play the evil bad guys in Black Crusade.(Nobody's truly good, at best it is shades of gray.)
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I'm looking for more of the Star Trek explore the galaxy rescue and alien encounters RPG versus the gloom and doom Star Wars/Warhammer 40K galaxy where someone always has there boot on your throat RPG.
I get what you mean – and for this you want something with grit – like Alternity. Can’t be recommended highly enough for this…or at least the concept. The game play was really neat back in the day, but after nearly 14 years we’ve been spoiled my much faster moving game engines.
That said (and I might lose my gaming license for this), when I want to do gritty sci-fi role playing I use Alternity’s setting but use the d20 Modern & Future rules. They still work great for my group.
This is one of the coolest ive found,
santiagoadventurepath.wordpress.com/