The laser-based synchronisation systems for the European XFEL and FLASH provide femtosecond-stable timing references for tens of clients along the accelerator and the experiment halls over many kilometres of optical fibre. Recently, benchmarking experiments revealed a point-to-point timing stability with sub-femtosecond rms timing jitter. At the same time geophysical effects like ocean waves and earthquakes do not only affect the performance of the system, but their impact can clearly be identified. To improve the temporal resolution in X-ray/optical pump-probe experiments, additional arrival time monitors for both the electrons and the optical laser pulses are currently being installed, allowing for a posteriori data sorting and eventually active feedbacks. Further, the optical reference oscillators and advanced synchronisation schemes are being developed, resulting in timing jitter on the sub-hundred attoseconds level.

Summary: An experiment to fly an accelerator in space recently concluded successfully. Discuss the objectives, differences from terrestrial accelerators, and results from the flight. Accelerators have the potential to play a major role in space-based activities. These can range from investigation of the Earth’s magnetic field, to helping mitigate the effects of increased solar activity (e.g. by helping drain the Earth’s radiation belts of charged particles), to deep-space missions. There are many challenges associated with operating accelerators in a space-based environment, however, ranging from high-voltage systems, to thermal management, to spacecraft charging. The Beam-Plasma Interaction Experiment – BeamPIE – was a small electron accelerator launched on a sounding rocket in 2023, to both explore the interaction of an electron beam with the near-earth plasma environment, and to test several new approaches to accelerator design in a space environment. This talk presents an overview of the BeamPIE accelerator design, mission objectives, and results from its flight.

The proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) integrated programme consists of two stages: an electron–positron collider serving as a Higgs-boson, electroweak and top-quark factory,followed by a proton–proton collider operating at a collision energy around 100 TeV. In 2021, in response to the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the CERN Council initiated the FCC Feasibility Study. This study covered, inter alia, physics objectives and potential, geology, civil engineering, technical infrastructure, territorial implementation, environmental aspects, R&D needs for the accelerators and detectors, socio-economic benefits, and cost. The FCC Feasibility Study was completed on 31 March 2025. We present a few key results along with accelerator R&D goals and discuss the next steps.