Mike Pence jokes it was Marco Rubio's fault that he ignored a NASA 'Do Not Touch' sign

Vice President Mike Pence apologized to NASA Friday and jokingly blamed Sen. Marco Rubio after a photograph of him disregarding a printed sign that said "DO NOT TOUCH" made waves on social media.

The photo showed Pence pressing his hand on a piece of space-flight hardware on display at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Pence spoke to NASA employees as he and Rubio toured the center on Thursday, but it was the picture of Pence touching the display item that went viral. On Friday, he joked that Rubio dared him to touch the item, and that it wasn't the first time he had fallen victim to a prank.

Here are the tweets:

And here is the original photo:

Mike Brown/REUTERS