Mercury Program Monument. Hand prints of the US astronaut Alan Shepard (1923-1998), at the Mercury Program Monument, Space View Park, Titusville, Florida, USA. His name is signed below the hand prints. This monument was dedicated in ceremonies in May 1995 and 1997, and includes hand prints of six of the seven Mercury Program astronauts. Project Mercury took place from 1959 to 1963, with the aim of putting an American astronaut in space. This was achieved with the first flight on 5 May 1961, when Shepard was launched in a Redstone rocket on a suborbital trajectory lasting 16 minutes.