Truth or Consequences: Can a space race save city named after TV show?

Out in the often harsh lands of the American West, small towns have come and gone over the ages, with mining, ranching, agriculture and, in many cases, sheer, bloody-minded determination.

Some are now ghost towns. Others have gone in for dramatic self-reinventions. Few more so than Truth or Consequences, a town on the Rio Grande river, in the middle of New Mexico.

Originally called Hot Springs, it changed its name 63 years ago and now is in the process of changing once more, thanks to nearby Spaceport America, where the British businessman Sir Richard Branson plans to launch the first commercial space flights, possibly as early as the end of this year.

Our correspondent Paul Adams reports from a little town with big ideas.

Produced by Robert Brown; filmed by Maxine Collins and edited by Bill McKenna

Archive footage courtesy of Geronimo Springs Museum, Truth or Consequences