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"The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction. You look at the world around you, and take it apart into its components. Then you take some of those components, throw them away, and plug in different ones, start it up and see what happens."
- Frederik Pohl

Astronaut  
  A person who travels in space.  

As far as I know, the first proper use of this term (see note below).

The young astronaut approached his tiny space flyer. It was shaped like an egg, except that it was more elongated, and the two ends tapered down to blunt points instead of being rounded.

The young astronaut entered the space flyer, closed the door, and was alone in the air-tight compartment just large enough to accommodate him. On the instrument board before him were dials, levers, gauges, buttons and queer apparatus which controlled and operated the various features of the craft.

From The Death's Head Meteor, by Neil R. Jones.
Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1930
Additional resources -

The first use of the word "astronaut" was in Across the Zodiac (1880) by Percy Greg; see astronaut (ship).

Compare to space pirate from Evans of the Earth-Guard (1930) by Edmond Hamilton, astrogator from The Conquest of Space (1931) by David Lasser, space men from Revolt of the Star Men (1932) by Raymond Z. Gallun, space-sailor from The Star-Roamers (1933) by Edmond Hamilton, spacedog from A Question of Salvage (1939) by Malcolm Jameson, space marines from Misfit (1939) by Robert Heinlein, rocketeer from Sunward Flight (1943) by Leo Zagat and space cadet from Sunward Flight (1943) by Leo Zagat.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Death's Head Meteor
  More Ideas and Technology by Neil R. Jones
  Tech news articles related to The Death's Head Meteor
  Tech news articles related to works by Neil R. Jones

Astronaut-related news articles:
  - Astronaut Gets Younger In Space

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