The Syrian Space Agency will be a public body with a scientific and research nature, according to a state-run Syrian news service. But actually conducting science may prove difficult, as many Syrian scientists and academics have fled the country due to violence and persecution. Before the civil war, Syrian doctors left the country at a higher-than-expected rate. Since the war began in March 2011, universities in Syria have become contested spaces. A report on Syrian universities in the uprising notes, "Syrian human rights monitoring organizations estimate that more than 35,000 Syrian students have been arrested on campus since the start of the revolution."

Amal Alachkar, a Syrian neuropharmacologist who fled the country at the start of the war, explains how regime policies led her to flee.

My lab was targeted by Shabiha, [a militia that supports Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria]. They broke in and destroyed it while trying to catch students. The five main public universities, all under the government’s control, are still working somehow. But the education system has collapsed. My department has lost its entire staff — some fled the country, and others are not able to get to the university.

A U.S.-led survey on the situation found:

Scores of Syrian university students are living in refugee camps in Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries, [University of California at Davis professor Keith] Watenpaugh and other US researchers found during a survey of the camps. Many of those students do not have the money to study in Jordan or other countries.

The death toll in the Syrian Civil War so far is 140,000. In addition, millions more Syrians have fled the conflict and are living in refugee camps, like the Zaatri Camp in Jordan.