Mike Pence "Do Not Touch" NASA Photo

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Critical Space Flight Hardware DO NOT TOUCH

SHOW US ON THE MODEL WHERE MIKE PENCE TOUCHED YOU T WAS HERE,RIGHT HERE

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About

Mike Pence "Do Not Touch" NASA Photo refers to a photograph of Vice President of the United States Mike Pence touching a critical piece of space hardware that bears a sign reading "DO NOT TOUCH." The photo inspired numerous photoshop memes and image macros shortly after it appeared online in summer 2017.

Origin

On July 6th, 2017, Reuters photographer Mike Brown photographed Vice President Mike Pence inside the Orion cleanroom at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida placing his left hand on a critical piece of space flight hardware that bore a warning label "DO NOT TOUCH." In the photograph (shown below), Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana can be seen tugging Pence's jacket, perhaps in an effort to stop him, as Senator Marco Rubio stands in the background.^[1]

Spread

That day, people on Twitter began sharing the image, adding captions on Pence's apparent disregard for the "do not touch" sign. Twitter user @flyosity^[2] posted the image and a zoomed-in photo of the sign with the caption "C'mon dude, really." The post (shown below) received more than 10,000 retweets and 22,000 likes in 24 hours.

C'mon dude, really? Critical Space Flight Hardware ight Hardware "DO NOT TOUCH"

Throughout the day and into the next, people continued to share and retweet that photograph, adding commentary and jokes to the image. Twitter published a Moments page regarding the reaction to the picture.^[8]

me, jumping into any dumb argument Critical Space Flight Hardware "DO NOT TOUCH

I find the picture of Mike Pence touching a thing labeled "Do Not Touch" extremely relatable Critical Space Flight Hardware DO NOT TOUCH

Mike Pence @VP gets a tour of the NASA Orion clean room & touches critical space flight hardware even though the sign says not to. Critical Space Flight Hardware "DO NOT TOUCH

The following day, on July 7th, Redditor Voctory^[3] posted the image to the /r/PhotoshopBattles subreddit. Throughout the day, people began posting photoshopped versions of the picture (example below). Within 24 hours, the thread had received more than 12,500 points (90% upvoted) and 400 comments.