THE BIG BANG THEORY: Bill Prady, Simon Helberg, and Mike Massimino Tease ‘The Countdown Reflection’

As Howard preps to go into space on tonight’s season finale of THE BIG BANG THEORY, the show got some help from someone who had a little bit of experience…real-life NASA astronaut Mike Massimino!

“It was a blast [filming],” Massimino told reporters last week. “Just being around these guys, and this team, was like being around a family.”

For THE BIG BANG THEORY star Simon Helberg (Wolowitz), the admiration was mutual.

“It was just incredible to hear the stories coming from somebody who had actually done that…and then of course stop by craft services on the way to the [replica] space shuttle,” Helberg joked.

When you view the scenes they filmed together in tonight’s episode, you’ll see it’s a good thing the duo got along — there wouldn’t have been much room for them to avoid each other if they didn’t.

“It was very tight — and I’m speaking as a smaller man — but we didn’t get out through [filming] all the scenes, so we shot them all in the same sequence,” Helberg said. “It was a few hours in there; it’s a tiny, cramped space, but it was very cool to be in there with an actual astronaut, and be talking about space.”

And while my lips are sealed about whether Howard and Bernadette manage to get married before his planned space trip, another romance is also dealt with in the finale — things aren’t looking as hot for Leonard and Penny after his botched proposal.

“It’s rocky,” co-creator Bill Prady said of that romance. “The aftermath of what Leonard did, that can’t be swept under the rug. Leonard seems to repeat a mistake in this relationship.”

For more from TBBT guys, come back to GiveMeMyRemote.com after the season finale airs. And if you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, check out the replica Soyuz Capsule until May 17 as part of Warner Bros. Television Group’s Television: Out of the Box exhibit. (Seriously, if you haven’t made the trip to the exhibit and you live nearby what are you waiting for?!)

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And to be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/givememyremotetv