It’s unusual for NASA to go viral, but that’s what happened this morning: it was hard to avoid a photo of Vice President Mike Pence appearing to make first contact with a piece of NASA equipment — that apparently wasn’t supposed to be touched. It looks to be a covering for the Orion capsule, which NASA is building to take humans into deep space. Fortunately, touching it probably won’t mess up future missions.
Here’s the back story on the photo: yesterday, Pence visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he gave a speech declaring that President Trump will make the space agency great again (but didn’t say how he’d do it). Pence then toured the campus facilities and stopped in the Orion clean room, where pieces of NASA’s capsule are being assembled. During this tour, Pence decided to place his hand on a piece of Orion spaceflight hardware — despite the fact that there was a sign attached to the article that read “DO NOT TOUCH.”
A photographer was on hand to snap the picture, and the internet was on hand to make the jokes.
When the sign says “Do Not Touch” but the VP is handsy. pic.twitter.com/uTlmsSRg7c
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) July 7, 2017
pic.twitter.com/OFZJwRoFUi
— Gotham_Knowledge (@GothamKnowledge) July 7, 2017
pic.twitter.com/XM6mSl45Pe
— darth:™ (@darth) July 7, 2017
In Pence’s defense, “DO NOT TOUCH” is in quotes. pic.twitter.com/E6AXhxICnn
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 7, 2017
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. You can check out a whole inspired collection here.