James William Benson (April 3, 1945 – October 10, 2008) was an American aerospace entrepreneur who founded SpaceDev, a commercial satellite and satellite component development company, and the Benson Space Company, a civilian spaceflight venture focused on commercial space tourism. Biography Benson was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He spent 30 years associated with the computer field, spanning the era from the introduction of modern mainframe computers to the dominance of the computer industry by microcomputers. Benson's partner Hal Woodward invented modern full text computer indexing and searching in 1981 based on the Federal Acquisition Regulation – the search system was called FARA (FAR Automated), and Benson exploited the new field through companies he co-founded. Benson was active in the early days of Internet Relay Chat (IRC). In the early 1990s, he assembled a large collection of help files that became the predecessor to today's IRChelp.org. Benson was a founding member of the Personal Spaceflight Federation. Benson was on the Board of Directors of the California Space Authority from 2005 to 2007 was named one of the "50 People to Watch in 2005" by San Diego magazine, and was named 2005 "Alumnus of the Year" by the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He founded the non-profit Space Development Institute, and introduced the Benson Prize for Amateur Discovery of Near Earth Objects. Benson was Vice-Chairman and private sector representative on NASA's national Space Grant Review Panel. SpaceDev After a successful career as a computer industry entrepreneur, Benson decided to take on the challenge of starting a space commercialization venture. It combined his lifelong interests in science, technology and astronomy with his successful business experience. Benson started the trend of successful high tech entrepreneurs moving into the space development arena, by incorporating SpaceDev, Inc. as a publicly owned space exploration and development company in 1997. Benson and SpaceDev worked to develop the world's first private sector enterprise to profitably explore and develop space beyond earth orbit. SpaceDev's mission is to help "make space happen" for all of humanity, through the development of a comprehensive private space program, by delivering affordable and practical space technologies, products and solutions to SpaceDev's government and commercial customers, while creating value for SpaceDev stockholders. Benson searched NASA's archives and "saw the HL-20's potential as a project that had