It was the sort of photo that was just begging to be hilariously captioned, mocked on Twitter and photoshopped.
During a visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Vice President Pence solemnly reached out and touched the Orion spacecraft's titanium forward bay cover, placing his full palm just below a sign that read: “Critical Space Flight Hardware 'DO NOT TOUCH.' "Customer Service Video
Mike Brown, a photographer for Reuters, captured the moment and his photo was soon devoured by the Internet — eventually forcing NASA to release a statement saying that it was okay for Pence to touch the space hardware and prompting the vice president to post a self-deprecating response Friday afternoon.