Editing Soviet space program (section)

===Funding and support===
[[File:Russia-Moscow-VDNH-Rocket R-7-1.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Vostok (rocket family)|Vostok]] rocket at the [[Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy|VDNH]]]]

The Soviet space program was secondary in military funding to the [[Strategic Rocket Forces]]' ICBMs. While the West believed that Khrushchev personally ordered each new space mission for propaganda purposes, and the Soviet leader did have an unusually close relationship with Korolev and other chief designers, Khrushchev emphasized missiles rather than space exploration and was not very interested in competing with Apollo.{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{rp|351,408,426–427}}

While the government and the Communist Party used the program's successes as propaganda tools after they occurred, systematic plans for missions based on political reasons were rare, one exception being [[Valentina Tereshkova]], the first woman in space, on [[Vostok 6]] in 1963.{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{rp|351}} Missions were planned based on rocket availability or ad hoc reasons, rather than scientific purposes. For example, the government in February 1962 abruptly ordered an ambitious mission involving two Vostoks simultaneously in orbit launched "in ten days time" to eclipse [[John Glenn]]'s [[Mercury-Atlas 6]] that month; the program could not do so until August, with [[Vostok 3]] and [[Vostok 4]].{{r|siddiqi2000}}{{rp|354–361}}