spacedev, the world's first commercial space exploration company, was founded in 1997 by jim benson, as a result of a merger between integrated space systems of southern california and a defunct publicly traded corporate shell. in august 1998 spacedev acquired all patents, intellectual property, test results, and documents that had been produced by the bankrupt american rocket company (amroc). some of these documents would later be used to create the spacedev streaker.