Joystick 2D Sprite Rotation and Movement

Much akin to Geometry Wars, I'd like to make a game where you control a ship's position using a thumbstick on a controller (in this case an Xbox 360 controller) as well as its sprites rotation.

For example, holding the left thumbstick FORWARD should move the ship UP and set the rotation of the sprite UP (90 degrees). I'm fairly new to Unity but I figured this would be an interesting challenge since I've been able to do it in other languages without too much trouble (i.e. LibGDX, etc.)

I have it set up now where I can set the rotation, but not move and vice-versa. Is there any way to rotate the image of a Sprite object without altering the directional path of the object?