[4] The Science Museum's present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28.

[6] However, the museum buildings were expanded over the following years; a pioneering Children's Gallery with interactive exhibits opened in 1931,[4] the Centre Block was completed in 1961–3, the infill of the East Block and the construction of the Lower & Upper Wellcome Galleries in 1980, and the construction of the Wellcome Wing in 2000 result in the museum now extending to Queen's Gate.

Visitors enter the main building from Exhibition Road, while the Wellcome Wing is accessed by walking through the Energy Hall, Exploring Space and then the Making the Modern World galleries (see below) at ground floor level.

After a short UK tour, since 2019 Rocket is on permanent display at the National Railway Museum in York, in the Art Gallery.

[12] One of the commissioned artworks is a large bronze sculpture of Rick Genest titled Self-Conscious Gene by Marc Quinn.

The Science City 1550–1800: The Linbury Gallery shows how London grew to be a global hub for trade, commerce and scientific enquiry.

This was built by the Science Museum and its main part completed in 1991, to celebrate 200 years since Babbage's birth, and was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

It explores the six networks that have transformed global communications: The Cable, The Telephone Exchange, Broadcast, The Constellation, The Cell and The Web[16] It was opened on 24 October 2014 by the Queen, Elizabeth II, who sent her first tweet from here.

The gallery is staffed by Explainers who demonstrate how exhibits work, conduct live experiments and perform shows to schools and the visiting public.

Contained in the gallery are several full sized aeroplanes and helicopters, including Alcock and Brown's transatlantic Vickers Vimy (1919), Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, as well as numerous aero-engines and a cross-section of a Boeing 747.

Past exhibitions have included: The Science Museum organises Astronights, "all-night extravaganza with a scientific twist".

Previous Lates have seen conversations with the actress activist Lily Cole[45] and Biorevolutions with the Francis Crick Institute which attracted around 7000 people, mostly under the age of 35.

[68] Equinor's sponsorship of the Wonderlab exhibit was on the basis that the Science Museum would not make any statement to damage the oil firm's reputation.

[73] Some presenters, including George Monbiot, pulled out of climate talks on finding they were sponsored by BP and the Norwegian oil company Equinor.

[74] There have been protests against the sponsorship; in May 2021, a group calling themselves 'Scientists for XR' (Extinction Rebellion) locked themselves to a mechanical tree inside the museum.

[76][77] In August 2021, members of Extinction Rebellion held a protest inside and outside the museum with a 12 ft (3.7 m) pink dodo.

[78] In 2021, Chris Rapley, a climate scientist, resigned from the museum's advisory board because of oil and gas company sponsorship.

[citation needed] In 2021, more than 40 senior academics and scientists said they would not work with the Science Museum due to its financial relationships with the fossil fuel industry.