I agree, I think the urge to explore the universe can be a kind of yearning for the spiritual. I mean when you look up at the stars at night, its hard not to be in awe of the power and magesty of what you are looking at, and those with a non-spiritual scientific mindset relate to this feeling of awe as a need to discover and build rockets, whereas the more religious or spiritually minded seem to just embrace the mystery of it all, and explore their feelings of God or whatever they believe in. A lot of astronaughts have said that seeing the Earth from space was a spiritual experience for them and I don't doubt it.
They say great mystics can travel as they please throughout the universe, and like you said, when we die, we may be able to do the same. I think we have all the knowledge of creation within us, untapped, it is just a matter of becoming more and more aware of who we are.

Peace