Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova completed 48 orbits aboard Vostok 6; the flight was actually a disaster: Valentina was very ill, and the mission leader prevented her from touching the controls. Valentina was personally chosen by Khrushchev as a symbol of the communist ideal of womanhood. Her marriage to Andrian Nikolayev, another astronaut, was also arranged by Khrushchev.
