NASA took reporters on a tour this week of the Alabama test areas where the Space Launch System’s fuel tanks are getting a stress workout, and engineers said nothing has turned up so far to slow the rocket’s progress. “We’re good here,” said Mike Nichols, lead test engineer for the massive liquid hydrogen tank.

Nichols said engineers expect to finish testing the liquid hydrogen tank by the end of August. They are hoping for clearance to test the part “to fail.” That means pushing and pulling on the tank with 38 hydraulic cylinders, each weighing from 500-3,300 pounds, until it breaks. The overall tests are designed to see if the tank can survive the stress loads it will face during liftoff and flight. Testing to fail tells them exactly where the breaking point is.

Nichols also said tests at Marshall of the intertank that connects the rocket’s liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks have gone “better than we could have asked for.”

The only tank not currently under testing is the rocket’s liquid oxygen tank, which just arrived from the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. That tank was being rigged to fit into its test stand when reporters toured the test area this week.

The test area is also home to legendary Apollo test stand 4760. It was built in 1965 and chas been dormant since 1998. The private rocket company Blue Origin owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is leasing the stand to test engines for its rockets.