An alternative concurrent program to the CORONA program was "SAMOS". That program included several types of satellite which used a different photographic method. This involved capturing an image on photographic film, developing the film aboard the satellite and then scanning the image electronically. The image was then transmitted via telemetry to ground stations. The Samos E-1 and Samos E-2 satellite programs used this system, but they were not able to take very many pictures and then relay them to the ground stations each day. Two later versions of the Samos program, such as the E-5 and the E-6, used the bucket-return approach pioneered with CORONA, but neither of the latter Samos series were successful.