Vice President Pence joked about a photo of him touching a piece of NASA equipment that was labeled “do not touch” on Friday, blaming Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioFlorida senators pushing to keep Daylight Savings Time during pandemic Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings MORE (R-Fla.) for the moment that quickly went viral.

“Sorry NASA…Marco Rubio dared me to do it!” Pence tweeted.

Okay...so this isn't exactly the first time this has happened. pic.twitter.com/6Y7b3UlJXe — Vice President Pence (@VP) July 7, 2017

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NASA spokeswoman Jen Rae Wang said in a statement released Friday afternoon that "the signs are there as a day-to-day reminder."

"Procedures require the hardware to be cleaned before tiles are bonded to the spacecraft, so touching the surface is absolutely okay. Otherwise, the hardware would have had a protective cover over it like the thermal heat shield, which was nearby," she said.

NASA said in a tweet that it was "an honor to host" Pence, adding of the hardware, "We were going to clean it anyway."

It was OK to touch the surface. Those are just day-to-day reminder signs. We were going to clean it anyway. It was an honor to host you! https://t.co/gu8zxknsJv — NASA (@NASA) July 7, 2017

The moment, captured during Pence’s visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to promote President Trump’s plans for the agency, quickly went viral on Twitter.

In Pence's defense, "DO NOT TOUCH" is in quotes. pic.twitter.com/E6AXhxICnn — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 7, 2017

This looks like an appalled face. pic.twitter.com/njIygeTZyT — Coy Woolard (@coylums) July 7, 2017

He wanted his own orb moment pic.twitter.com/SE14czbsUq — Jim DePaolis (@wecanbanewforce) July 7, 2017

That photo of Pence touching the spacecraft is making my OCD go off like please do not touch the sterile science thing we spent ages on it — Upulie Divisekera (@upulie) July 7, 2017

Updated: 4:45 p.m.