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.
Alan Sheppard was launched into space aboard Mercury 3 on May 5, 1961 to become the first American in space. His craft did not achieve orbit, but rose to a height of 116 miles and traveled 303 miles before safely parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean.