--- title: Mike Pence Touches NASA Equipment Marked 'Do Not Touch' description: Mike Pence became an instant meme after a photo surfaced of him touching NASA equipment clearly marked "DO NOT TOUCH" canonical: https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-07T14:58:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T06:02:23.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mike Pence Touches NASA Equipment Marked 'Do Not Touch' og:description: The image has now become a meme og:url: https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt656d7fa69fabfc51/6988d4d086f68eeee16e5777/mike-pence-nasa-touch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: mike-pence-nasa-touch og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mike Pence Touches NASA Equipment Marked 'Do Not Touch' twitter:description: The image has now become a meme twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt656d7fa69fabfc51/6988d4d086f68eeee16e5777/mike-pence-nasa-touch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mike Pence Touches NASA Equipment Marked 'Do Not Touch' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: President Trump and King Salman Open New Center to Combat Extremism [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump and King Salman Open New Center to Combat Extremism](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EzGN1eBA.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2017-05-22. President Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman open a new center in Riyadh dedicated to monitor and combat extremism._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:02 AM UTCPublished: Jul 7, 2017 2:58 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 6:02 AM UTCPublished: Jul 7, 2017 2:58 PM UTC Mike Pence succumbed to everyone’s secret museum impulse when he reached out and touched a piece of equipment clearly labeled “DO NOT TOUCH.” The contact with the critical space flight hardware occurred during the Vice President’s tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Thursday and was captured by a Reuters photographer. Pence explained why he did it on Friday: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dared him. > [](https://twitter.com/VP/status/883408689285214211) Rubio teased back that he warned Pence about breaking the hardware: > [](https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/883417608451747841) But NASA says no apology is necessary, tweeting at the Vice President that “it was OK to touch the surface” because they were about to clean the item anyway. > [](https://twitter.com/NASA/status/883415828389122051) The image of Pence has now become a meme, with viewers joking about impulse control, Pence’s policy of [not having dinner alone](http://motto.time.com/4716439/mike-pence-karen-pence-eat-alone/?iid=sr-link1) with women who aren’t his wife, and even the [famous orb photo](http://time.com/4788054/trump-orb-memes/?iid=sr-link2) of President Trump. > [](https://twitter.com/stpeteyontweety/status/883138314164948994) > [](https://twitter.com/mcwm/status/883178314117951489) > [](https://twitter.com/goldengateblond/status/883222543607316481) > [](https://twitter.com/ashleymayer/status/883190973953593346) > [](https://twitter.com/Durf/status/883225722600411136) The Vice President got in on the joke, and even tweeted a photoshopped image himself: > [](https://twitter.com/VP/status/883408914196332544) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/"},"headline":"Mike Pence Touches NASA Equipment Marked 'Do Not Touch'","datePublished":"2017-07-07T14:58:47.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T06:02:23.000Z","description":"Mike Pence became an instant meme after a photo surfaced of him touching NASA equipment clearly marked \"DO NOT TOUCH\"","url":"https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/","keywords":["U.S.","politics","Mike Pence","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt656d7fa69fabfc51/6988d4d086f68eeee16e5777/mike-pence-nasa-touch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt656d7fa69fabfc51/6988d4d086f68eeee16e5777/mike-pence-nasa-touch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mike-pence-nasa-touch","caption":"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.","creditText":"Mike Brown—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/u-s/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/","name":"Mike Pence Touches NASA Equipment Marked 'Do Not Touch'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump and King Salman Open New Center to Combat Extremism","description":"President Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman open a new center in Riyadh dedicated to monitor and combat extremism.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EzGN1eBA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-22T14:08:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EzGN1eBA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4848951/mike-pence-nasa-do-not-touch/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```