A preauthorization is a temporary hold placed on a credit or debit card. It is not an actual charge, although it does temporarily make the hold amount unavailable until the settlement or transaction clears. Companies use preauthorizations to help secure payment.
Astronaut is the term the US uses for a person who goes into space, cosmonaut is the Russian term. The first astronaut to fly into space was Alan Shepard, who flew the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. However, the first person to fly in space was Yuri Gagarin, who orbited the earth three times on April 12, 1961. Although this was 23 days before Shepard's flight, since Gagarin flew on Soviet spacecraft he was a cosmonaut, not an astronaut.
A grandfather of three is poised to blast into space and the record books on Friday, becoming the American astronaut who has spent the longest time in space, NASA said. Jeff Williams, 58, is the first American to make three long-duration flights to orbit, and will break a US record set by astronaut Scott Kelly earlier this year. By the end of his half-year mission at the orbiting International Space Station, Williams will become the American with the most cumulative days in spaceâ534, NASA said.