The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is a 6.9 km long particle accelerator at CERN. The SPS was designed by a team led by John Adams, director-general of what was then known as Laboratory II. Originally specified as a 300 GeV accelerator, the SPS was actually built to be capable of 400 GeV, an operating energy it achieved on the official commissioning date of 17 June 1976. However, by that time, this energy had been exceeded by Fermilab, who reached an energy of 500 GeV on 14 May of that year. Sursă: Wikipedia engleză