Vice President Mike Pence touches "critical space flight hardware" clearly labeled "do not touch" during a tour of the Orion spacecraft clean room with Sen. Marco Rubio (left) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday. | AP Pence mocks his own NASA 'do not touch' blunder

Vice President Mike Pence is owning up to his NASA mishap.

Pence caused a mini-sensation when photographers captured him touching a piece of equipment that was clearly marked with a "DO NOT TOUCH" sign during his tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Flight Center on Thursday.


As memes of the photo proliferated, Pence made light of the incident on Friday. He issued a tweet in the afternoon from his official @VP account that apologized for his actions and quipped that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dared him to touch the gear. Pence attached the viral picture with a red circle around Rubio’s face in the background.

One minute later, Pence tweeted a second photo, which included a manipulated version of his overreach — with his offending hand touching a porcupine instead.

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“Okay …” he wrote. “So this isn’t exactly the first time this has happened.”

NASA quickly replied, giving the vice president a pass. "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!" the agency tweeted.