By the late 1990s the science center had become small and outdated compared to newer science museums. In 1998 the science center was expanded (into space freed by moving the offices and construction shops to another site) and modernized to include rides such as the Virtual Zone, a motion-simulator offering virtual rides with a scientific bent. The scientific and interactive exhibits then dwarfed the planetarium/theater, so the name was changed to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and re-branded in late 2016 as the Fleet Science Center.