Less than three weeks after Orbital ATK Inc.’s Antares rocket resumed launching supplies to the international space station with some fanfare, NASA wants the booster to temporarily stand down, according to industry officials.

Instead of using the redesigned Antares—which bounced back from a catastrophic explosion after liftoff in 2014—to ship supplies into orbit early next year, these officials said, senior program managers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have devised an alternate plan. They want the next flight of Orbital’s unmanned Cygnus cargo capsule to ride on top of an Atlas V, a rocket produced by another company that can lift heavier loads and has a superior reliability record.

The Atlas V, manufactured by a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. , is the Pentagon’s primary large rocket, boasting a long legacy of excellent performance, dependability and more than 60 successful national-security and other missions in a row. United Launch Alliance, which builds and operates the rocket, also is known for the predictability of its launch schedules—an especially important attribute now for NASA decision makers.

The shift, which surprised many aerospace experts and caught even senior Orbital officials flat footed, according to people familiar with the matter, underscores NASA’s desire to have greater assurance that the orbiting laboratory will have adequate supplies and material for experiments in the short term. A NASA announcement could come as quickly as the next few days, these people said.

Antares successfully shipped cargo to the space station before its 2014 accident, and is expected to resume unmanned shipments from the Wallops Island launchpad offshore Virginia later in 2017.