The Vice President got in on the joke after a picture of him touching a piece of Nasa equipment went viral: Mike Brown/Reuters

Vice President Mike Pence has let his inner child-at-a-museum out during a tour of Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre.

In a photo that has gone viral online, Mr Pence is seen palming a giant metal object with a sign that says, unequivocally, not to do what the Vice President was doing.

“Critical Space Flight Hardware,” the sign taped to the giant metal object read. “DO NOT TOUCH”.

Touching the item doesn’t appear to pose a significant risk to the technology, however. The Verge notes that it looks like it is the covering of the Orion capsule, which the space agency is building to bring humans into deep space.

Mr Pence was quickly ridiculed online, but joined in on the joke in saying that Senator Marco Rubio, who had accompanied him to his home state’s space centre, had encouraged him to break the rules.

“Sorry @NASA… @MarcoRubio dared me to do it!” he tweeted.

Pence:....Shiny

Rubio:The sign says "Do Not Touch" Mike!

Pence:....Shiny pic.twitter.com/vyBqZBiBZd — St Peter (@stpeteyontweety) July 7, 2017

Sign on fragile space equipment: DO NOT TOUCH



Mike Pence: *slowly touches it* "oh...my...GOD, MOTHER, I'VE NEVER FELT SO ALIVE!" pic.twitter.com/uzorGVS5FK — Donald Trump Toupee (@TrumpeeToupee) July 7, 2017

Mike Pence only violated the "Do Not Touch" sign to reassure Republicans that he's just as competent as Trump. #NASA pic.twitter.com/jM78hmFf3s — Podcaster Tim in NYC (@TJBeauregard) July 7, 2017

Mr Rubio replied quickly.

“In fairness, I warned @VP that ‘you break it, you own it,’” Mr Rubio wrote, using the Vice President’s Twitter handle to tag him.

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Mr Pence was in Florida to promote the Trump administration’s push to get American astronauts onto the surface of Mars and for the US to return to the Moon.

The United States is “at the dawn of a new era of space exploration,” Mr Pence said. We will put “American boots on the face of Mars.”

During a 25-minute long speech in the Kennedy Space Centre’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building, Donald Trump’s right hand man stopped short of providing any sort of time frame for either of those goals, and didn’t say how the US would do it.

He repeatedly called for the “re-establishment” of US space leadership, but didn’t discuss future international partnerships or collaborations.