  This paper presents results and plans of the NA49 and NA61/SHINE experiments
at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron concerning the study of relativistic
nucleus-nucleus interactions. First, the NA49 evidence for the energy threshold
of creating quark-gluon plasma, the onset of deconfinement, in central
lead-lead collisions around 30A GeV is reviewed. Then the status of the
NA61/SHINE systematic study of properties of the onset of deconfinement is
presented. Second, the search for the critical point of strongly interacting
matter undertaken by both experiments is discussed. NA49 measured large
fluctuations at the top SPS energy, 158A GeV, in collisions of light and medium
size nuclei. They seem to indicate that the critical point exists and is
located close to baryonic chemical potential of about 250 MeV. The NA61/SHINE
beam energy and system size scan started in 2009 will provide evidence for the
existence of the critical point or refute the interpretation of the NA49
fluctuation data in terms of the critical point.
