TERMS

We appreciate your business! For smooth process from making your reservation to check-out, we want you to be fully informed with our policies. Please read.

LATE ARRIVAL: If arriving after 9 pm, please call early to make special arrangements.

EARLY CHECK-IN: available for a $10 fee. We need advance notice (before Noon) and is based on availability. Our office is closed Noon to 3pm.

LATE CHECK-OUT: before Noon is free; from Noon - 1pm is $10. After 1pm is an additional night and is based on availability. We are a small inn; our housekeepers need to get the rooms ready by 3pm check-in time.

CANCELLATION & No Show policy: Free Reservation modification or cancellation with advance notice greater than 48 hours PRIOR TO DAY of check-in; less than 48 hours, first night is due. Additionally, during HOLIDAYS Advance deposit may be charged to your card for your stay a minimum of 2 days prior to check-in. Advance notice greater than 48 hours prior to the day of check-in for any reservation modification or cancellation is required, otherwise you FORFEIT DEPOSIT. Holidays: Memorial weekend, July 4 week, Labor Day weekend, Thanksgiving week, Christmas & New Year week. NO SHOW: Full payment due.

All rooms are NON-SMOKING; subject to $250 penalty.

Traveling with pets? Let us know. Well behaved dogs only. Please see Dog Policies.

DOG POLICIES

(Dogs only. No cats, please.)

Please notify front desk about your dog upon check-in. 

$15 per night fee for your first dog. Each additional dog is $10 per night. Four dogs per room maximum. $135 max per weekly stay up to 4 dogs. Prior verbal approval on weekly stays is required.

Your dog must be fully trained and appropriately restrained when other guests are nearby. Any disturbances such as barking must be curtailed to ensure that the quiet enjoyment of other guests is not disturbed. Your dog should not be left un-kenneled, and you are responsible for cleaning up after them on the property and in the guest rooms. Ask at the desk for special towels and pickup bags.

In respect for our landscaped desert plants, please "curb your dog.”
 
We appreciate observance of our policies, and we hope you and your dog(s) have a wonderful stay!

ABOUT US

With cultural respect for the classic motor lodge, our restoration goal was to stay true to the simple style of lodging. Offering the traveler convenience and comfort, yet blending modernization with a peaceful aesthetic. We feel that architecture, decor and environment can be brought together in a harmony and continuity to create calm.

Don't let the name Rocket Inn fool you; we are not kitschy or plastic. Our name is a nod to the science fiction of mid-century when this motel was built, as well as to the modern science of rockets launching from the nearby Spaceport America and White Sands Missile Range.

In keeping with "less is more," our rooms are simple: big comfortable beds, large step-in showers, basic pantry space, table and chairs. Yet all rooms are modernized with flat screen HDTV, microwave and fridge tucked away, plus plenty of power outlets and WIFI. We have made pleasing, simple surroundings our choice of design when creating the unique environment that is Rocket Inn. We keep the traveler at the center of our process as we bring our vision to life.

 

PRESS

July 11, 20213:11 AM MDT

Aerospace & Defense

Drought-hit New Mexico town eyes economic liftoff from Virgin Galactic space launch

Nathan Frandino

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M., July 10 (Reuters)

As the first passenger rocket plane gears up for takeoff, a sleepy desert town near Spaceport America in New Mexico is hoping for a liftoff from tourism.

The oddly named town of Truth or Consequences, 30 miles from the launchpad, relies on its hot springs, healing waters, and nearby Elephant Butte reservoir for its livelihood.

But tourism has evaporated with the drought, which brought the reservoir's water level toward record lows. Residents of TorC, as they call it, are looking skyward for relief.

"This is real pioneering stuff, opening up the heavens to the entire world," said town manager Bruce Swingle, who is organizing a watch party on Sunday for Richard Branson's launch of Virgin Galactic Holding Inc's (SPCE.N) space tourism flight.

The town never expected the "lion's share" of revenue from activities around Spaceport America, but rather a steady stream that would grow alongside the launch facility, he added.

When Val Wilkes and her wife Cydney bought a motor lodge a decade ago, she named it the Rocket Inn.

"I've always been a science fiction fan and I love living around the corner from where science fiction is becoming science fact," she said.

Motel bookings have improved as pandemic curbs have eased, and will keep rising throughout the town, she said. Las Cruces, New Mexico, about 80 miles south, with its direct route to Spaceport America, will have little impact, she added. "If people want to come to our town, they'll come."

One thing that has not been rising is the reservoir, originally built for the agricultural industry, but has become a major draw for tourism in the town of 5,800. Recreational activities include boating, fishing and camping.

Built from 1911 to 1916, the Elephant Butte reservoir was once 44 miles (70.81 km) long and 11 miles across. However, after years of drought, the man-made lake is now an estimated 18-20 miles long and 5 miles across.

Rings around the edges show where the water once rested, and Phil King, an engineering consultant for the Elephant Butte Irrigation District said the high water mark was last reached in 1995.

"It's now in a crisis. All the reservoirs. There is no water to put in the lake. It's gotta come from snowpack. And climate projections are saying we're just not going to get what we used to get as snowpack," said Gary Esslinger, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District's treasurer and manager.

Monsoons will bring some water, which the district will store in the empty drains that can seep into the groundwater, refilling the aquifer, Esslinger said.

But that may not be enough to keep boats afloat on the reservoir much longer. Water levels have dropped so much this season that marina owner Neal Brown has had to move his floating docks to deeper waters, an expensive and labor-intensive job.

As of Friday, the reservoir currently was holding 137,000 acre-feet of water, which is about 7% of its capacity, according to multiple sources. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation said the water level could reach less than 1% of capacity by the second week of August.

Brown worries that if the water levels continue to drop, it will be harder for both the community and the ecosystem to recover.

"If it goes as low as they're predicting, I would have to close the marina. I wouldn't be able to float in it," he said, adding that the state needs to do a better job managing the waterflows that begin in Colorado and come down through New Mexico via the Rio Grande. A drought plan with a minimum pool level is also needed, Brown added.

Meanwhile, the city - which renamed itself after a radio and TV quiz show in 1950 - can turn toward Spaceport to make up for any losses in water tourism though King is not optimistic.

"We'll see how many people show up for this launch," said King. "But I'll tell you that on a Fourth of July weekend or a Memorial Day weekend, we can have 100,000 people show up here and I don't anticipate that that would happen for a launch."

Reporting by Nathan Frandino Editing by Richard Chang, Diane Craft and Frances Kerry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

Sir Richard Branson Becomes An Astronaut 2021

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/virgin-galactics-branson-ready-space-launch-aboard-rocket-plane-2021-07-11

 

The Verge 2019

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/30/21035125/virgin-galactic-spaceport-america-truth-or-consequences-new-mexico

 

Reuters 2014

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/truth-or-consequences-spaceport-idUSRTR3OB59