What is important here is the distance between the sponsoring company and the SPE. In the absence of adequate distance between the sponsor and the new entity, the latter will not be an SPE but only a subsidiary company. A good SPE should be able to stand on its feet, independent of the sponsoring company.
President Eisenhower authorizes creation of NASA. On this day in 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an act that creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He called the signing an [sic] historic step, further equipping the United States for leadership in the space age.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began in 1958 as a reaction to Sputnik and as a means for turning missiles into launch vehicles for America's civilian space efforts.he Army's Wernher von Braun, seen here with a model rocket, was prevented from making America's first attempt to put a satellite in orbit and was forced to defer to a team from the Naval Research Laboratory. When the Navy's Vanguard failed, von Braun put America in space with Explorer in January, 1958.