Yesterday, the world watched as British Astronaut Tim Peake blasted off from Kazakhstan to join the International Space Station.

The second Briton in space, following Helen Sharman's 1991 Juno mission, Peake will live aboard the ISS for six months on a historic journey that will see him carry out experiments to make use of the state of weightlessness, some 250 miles above the earth's surface.

For a former Army Air Corps Officer this is a career-forming, life-changing expedition. And as national pride goes, we’re full of it. Peake fever reigns.

"I have to wonder if this selfish ‘career separation’ is ever worth it - even for space travel."

But what about the wife and young family he's left behind?

Much was made of Peake’s emotional departure from his children, boys age six and four.

It's been reported they'll be 'counting the sleeps' until his return - and his four year old son, Oliver, was seen tearfully begging to go along, as his father made a heart symbol with his hands from the rocket window.

As a divorced single mum of two children (of similar ages to Peake’s) I have to wonder if this selfish ‘career separation’ is ever worth it - even for space travel.

Rebecca Peake and sons say goodbye to Tim for six months

Giving up six precious months of family life takes a father's absence to the highest extreme. Especially when it’s for work – and not through sad circumstance.

There are 2 million lone parents in the UK and I’d be willing to wager that a large proportion of these did not choose to parent singularly.

Despite our best efforts, relationships go wrong, people change, life gets in the way and couples split-up; leaving children cared for by one parent for the majority or the entirety of the time.

I’m one of them. I didn’t enter in to my marriage thinking it would end in divorce and I certainly didn’t have children with the aim of them being raised in a single parent family. Observing the effect a part-time father has on my children has been one of the most difficult parts of ending our marriage– his absence by circumstance is palpable.

"He might be only 50 miles up the M1 - and not 250 miles up in the earth’s atmosphere - but the sense of removal is the same."

He might be only 50 miles up the M1 - and not 250 miles up in the earth’s atmosphere - but the sense of removal is the same.

Where possible, children need a mother and father's influence in their lives. A full compliment of love from both parents, present and available for affection and advice.

Wilfully taking these away is harmful to their development - heart-wrenching when it's an inevitable process in divorce and surely never acceptable when due to a career choice.

If my ex-husband had jetted off into space leaving me doing Christmas alone with the in-laws? Well, that in itself would be grounds for separation.

Alice Judge-Talbot and her children

Then there’s the danger factor, the risk that accompanies six months on a space station. My heart was in my mouth as I watched Peake’s sons jump up and down at the excitement of daddy taking off in a rocket ship.

You can’t deny this will be a pretty cool story for them to share at school but there was a strong chance it could have all gone wrong.

The sight of their dad exploding in a ball of fire is something that would have stuck with those boys their whole lives, and the danger isn’t over yet: we’ve all seen Gravity, we know re-entering the earth’s atmosphere is a bit more dangerous than getting off at junction 14 of the motorway.

You’ve got to wonder how different the media coverage would have been had the astronaut been a woman with a young family.

Leaving my own children for six months is a choice I would personally never make – I wouldn’t dream of missing their milestones, their needs, their cuddles - and you can bet questions would have been asked of a woman who felt this was a valid choice.

A mother on this mission would have ‘abandoned’ her kids. She’d have been seen as cold-hearted, career driven and ‘ambitious’. Yet Tim Peake is heralded as a hero.

His story is hugely inspiring: grit, ambition and determination have literally propelled him into space.

Peake might be making history - but at what cost?