Story highlights Pence was at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to discuss goals for space exploration

"Sorry @NASA...@MarcoRubio dared me to do it!" Pence tweeted

(CNN) Mike Pence set social media abuzz Thursday with a photo of him touching a piece of NASA space equipment clearly marked "do not touch." On Friday, the vice president jokingly blamed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for it.

"Sorry @NASA...@MarcoRubio dared me to do it!" Pence tweeted, along with a photo emphasizing Rubio's position in the incriminating photo.

Pence was at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to discuss the administration's goals for American space exploration. During his tour of the facility, Pence laid a hand on part of the Orion spacecraft. The vice president also joked that it was perhaps not the first time his hand had gone astray.

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

Rubio, for his part, played along with the accusatory tweet, quipping that he warned Pence "you break it, you own it."

In fairness, I warned @VP that "you break it, you own it" https://t.co/X5ROcnDVCd — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 7, 2017

According to NASA, there was no harm done.

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