It offers several programs for students, operates the Alan J. Friedman Center for youth education and holds events such as the seasonal Queens Night Market and Maker Faire.

The proposed science museum was to be located at 111th Street near the Long Island Rail Road tracks in Corona,[9] on a site that other exhibitors had shunned.

[4][31] Abbott Laboratories, American Cancer Society, Ames Company, Hearing Aid Industry Conference, Office of Civil Defense,[31][34] American Chemical Society, Dow Corning, General Aniline & Film, International Telephone & Telegraph, United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and Upjohn Company sponsored exhibits in the pavilion.

[41] The U.S. government also added exhibits to the Space Park to celebrate notable events in spaceflight;[41] for instance, the spacecraft from the Gemini 4 mission was displayed during mid-1965.

[50] The Mayor's Committee on the Future of Flushing Meadow recommended in mid-1965 that the Hall of Science be retained after the fair, though most other fairground structures would be demolished.

[68] Two thousand children were visiting the museum daily by early 1967,[65] and Emanuel R. Piore was appointed as the Hall of Science's president that November.

[96][105] The museum sought to host additional cultural and scientific events by the late 1970s,[107] and the Japanese government repaired the Space Park's Atlas rocket in 1978 and temporarily exhibited it in Tokyo.

The project was supposed to include 29,000 square feet (2,700 m2) of additional exhibit space, a media center, multipurpose rooms, a 300-seat auditorium, and a 100-seat planetarium just outside.

That May, the New York Daily News wrote that the space park models had peeling paint and graffiti, while the museum's moat was filled with "chipped cement and scattered stones".

[115] A group of experts prepared a report for the city government in July 1983, stating that the museum was too small, hard to reach, and unattractive to corporate sponsors.

[118] The museum began focusing on interactive exhibits for children[125] and outreach to school groups, including portable planetariums and a library.

[192] The museum raised money for the expansion at its annual awards galas,[194] and the New York City Council also provided $5 million in funding.

[209][210] Polshek Partnership was rehired for the Great Hall's renovation, which was originally planned to be completed in 2012;[210] the mayoral administration of Michael Bloomberg allocated $25 million for the project.

[211] After the Great Hall's facade was renovated, workers restored the interior, upgraded mechanical systems, added communication equipment, and waterproofed the building.

[215] Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation the next year to allow the school to be built on the museum's parking lot,[216] and construction started in 2019.

[218] The New York Hall of Science temporarily closed in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic,[219] though the museum continued to host activities online.

[200][239] That wing's ground story contains "Human Plus", an exhibit about technology for people with physical disabilities,[228] as well as a play area for preschool children.

[126] In the early and mid-1970s, these included a showcase of multimedia artworks that demonstrated scientific principles,[245] a film about celestial deities,[246] prints by Yugoslav artists,[247] Polish textiles,[248] and firefighting antiques.

[250] Other exhibits during the late 1970s and early 1980s included displays about minerals of New York state,[251] wood-burning stoves,[252] the aviation industry,[253] a ski simulator,[254] and tennis matches seen through microscopes.

[280] To accommodate the museum's programs and exhibits, staffers invented a portable canvas planetarium dome that was used by local schools,[170] as well as a specialized high-resolution microscope[73][170] that was later used around the world.

The Queens Night Market takes place every year in the museum's parking lot, operating on Sundays between April and October.

[315][316] The north wing includes the Light Wall, designed by James Carpenter as part of the city's Percent for Art program;[311][312] it consists of a sloped pane of glass dotted with small holes.

[183] Built in 1961 for the United States Air Force, the rockets never saw military use and were instead displayed in the 1964 World's Fair, albeit with the fuel tanks removed.

[324] The equipment in the playground includes a wobbly bridge,[325][324] a large spider web made of steel-reinforced rope, a pair of curved and straight slides, a set of speaking tubes, and a massive seesaw.

[73] Two-fifths of the money came from city funds,[144][73] while the rest of the operating budget came from admissions, state and federal grants, and corporate and private donations.

[118][140][193] In 2005, the museum received part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which had been made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

[338] After the hall became a museum, a Christian Science Monitor reporter compared it to "a roll of cardboard stood on end",[57] and a New York Times writer described it as "a leftover from the recent World's Fair—and a hope for the future".

[240] Davidson, writing for that newspaper, said the north wing was "about the play between the obvious and the illusory" and that the building's perspective was distorted by its slanted walls and translucent surfaces.

[314] Another writer, for the Architect's Newspaper, said the design represented the fact that the museum was "emerging from its thick concrete walls into the clear light of day".

[313] Suzanne Stephens wrote for the Architectural Record that the north wing was more human in scale compared to the original structure, which was "abstract and scaleless".