--- title: Mike Pence: I Touched NASA Equipment Because Rubio Dared Me description: Mike Pence just explained what made him touch the NASA equipment marked "DO NOT TOUCH": a dare from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio canonical: https://time.com/4849939/mike-pence-nasa-marco-rubio-touch/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-07T19:52:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T06:01:33.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mike Pence Says He Touched NASA Equipment Because Marco Rubio Dared Him og:description: But NASA said there's no apology necessary og:url: https://time.com/4849939/mike-pence-nasa-marco-rubio-touch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt656d7fa69fabfc51/6988d4d086f68eeee16e5777/mike-pence-nasa-touch.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: mike-pence-nasa-touch og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mike Pence Says He Touched NASA Equipment Because Marco Rubio Dared Him twitter:description: But NASA said there's no apology necessary twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt656d7fa69fabfc51/6988d4d086f68eeee16e5777/mike-pence-nasa-touch.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mike Pence Says He Touched NASA Equipment Because Marco Rubio Dared Him  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:01 AM UTCPublished: Jul 7, 2017 7:52 PM UTC  Vice President Mike Pence is shown a piece of hardware by Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana during a tour of the Operations and Checkout Building in Florida, July 6, 2017. Vice President Mike Pence is shown a piece of hardware by Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana during a tour of the Operations and Checkout Building in Florida, July 6, 2017.Mike Brown—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:01 AM UTCPublished: Jul 7, 2017 7:52 PM UTC Mike Pence just explained what made him [touch the NASA equipment](http://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/?iid=sr-link1) marked “DO NOT TOUCH”: a dare from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “Sorry @NASA…@MarcoRubio dared me to do it!” the Vice President tweeted Friday afternoon, accompanied by the now meme-famous photo with everything blurred but Rubio’s face. Rubio responded on Twitter, joking that he warned Pence not to break the equipment. > [](https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/883417608451747841) But NASA says there’s no apology necessary for the incident at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday. “The ‘do not touch’ signs are there as a day-to-day reminder, including the one visible on the titanium Forward Bay Cover for the Orion spacecraft,” NASA said in a statement provided to TIME. “Procedures require the hardware to be cleaned before tiles are bonded to the spacecraft, so touching the surface is okay. Otherwise, the hardware would have had a protective cover over it like the thermal heat shield, which was nearby.” > [](https://twitter.com/VP/status/883408689285214211) Pence’s joking explanation came after the image had been circulating online for hours as people [photoshopped it](http://time.com/4848954/mike-pence-nasa-meme-photoshop-battle/?iid=sr-link2) into different backdrops. Pence even tweeted out one of the doctored images: > [](https://twitter.com/VP/status/883408914196332544) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4849939/mike-pence-nasa-marco-rubio-touch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4849939/mike-pence-nasa-marco-rubio-touch/"},"headline":"Mike Pence Says He Touched NASA Equipment Because Marco Rubio Dared Him","datePublished":"2017-07-07T19:52:15.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T06:01:33.000Z","description":"Mike Pence just explained what made him touch the NASA equipment marked \"DO NOT TOUCH\": a dare from Florida Sen. 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