The Space Development Corporation LLC of Steamboat Springs, Colorado has established a prize to spur amateur discovery of near Earth asteroids. Named after the company's founder, James William Benson, the Benson Prize will award $500 for each discovery made by amateur astronomers of objects with perihelia less than the Earth's average distance from the sun.

Space Development Corp. is a private space exploration company that will announce in July a venture to build the first private spacecraft to go beyond Earth's orbit.