Mike Massimino

Dr. Michael J. Massimino (born August 19, 1962) is a NASA astronaut, who is a a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, both of which serviced the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), including the historic final repair mission. Akin to Howard Wolowitz, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and worked as an aerospace engineer, focusing on space robotics systems and human-machine interfaces for space systems.

Character Information
In The Friendship Contraction, Mike Massimino contacts Howard at his home from NASA via Skype about his upcoming duties as a payload specialist on Expedition 31 to the International Space Station. After Mike reveals his astronaut nickname to be "Mass", which Howard misinterprets as a reference to Newton's second law of motion (as reduced to the familiar Force = Mass x Acceleration, but actually is just short for his last name), Howard has Raj call him to play his phone ringtone, Sir Elton John's "Rocket Man", and states it is his favorite song in an attempt to convince Massimino to designate him Howard "Rocket Man" Wolowitz. However, when Howard's mother screams to him that his Froot Loops cereal will become soggy, Mike decides Howard's astro-nickname will be "Frootloops" (a crazy or stupid person), much to Howard's dismay.