Current Status and Future Capabilities of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF)

We discuss the current status and future capabilities of the 3.2-m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Maunakea, Hawai'i. Observing time is open to the entire astronomical community, with 50% of the time available for solar system observations and NASA mission support, and the remainder of the time available for non-solar system observations. Current facility instruments are a 0.7-5.3-micron R=50-2,500 spectrograph and imager (SpeX), a 1-5.3-micron R=20,000-80,000 spectrograph (iSHELL), and a recently upgraded mid-infrared camera (MIRSI). A 5-25-micron R=5000-100,000 spectrograph (TEXES) is also available through collaboration with the TEXES team. 'Opihi, a wide field (0.5-degree) CCD finder telescope is offered on a shared risk basis for asteroid acquisition and SpeX flux calibration. Future new capabilities will include an off-axis CCD guider and low-order wavefront sensor (FELIX) for improved image quality, and a one-shot 0.4-4-micron integral field R=150 spectrograph (SPECTRE) optimized for the characterization of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and small solar system bodies, and for time domain astronomy.