NASA has renewed its contract with the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy to continue operating NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Maunakea. The contract is potentially worth up to $85.5 million over 10 years. The IRTF is a component of NASA's planetary defense network and is used to identify and track potentially hazardous celestial objects, such as asteroids. The telescope determines the composition of these objects via spectroscopy to assess their potential damage if they were to impact Earth. The renewed contract is a 'vote of confidence' in the telescope, which is the only ground-based telescope funded by NASA. The contract is expected to last until the expiration of the UH's master lease of the Maunakea Science Reserve, no later than 2033. [1419f9a9]