It carried two People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC) taikonauts and a payload specialist from Beihang University on board a Shenzhou spacecraft.

The spacecraft completed construction and testing in December 2022, and prior to launch was maintained in a state of near-readiness if needed as a lifeboat for the Shenzhou 15 crew.

[3][4] On 20 July 2023, the first scheduled spacewalk of Shenzhou 16 was carried out by Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu through the airlock of the Wentian lab module (Zhu Yangzhu being the first Chinese flight engineer to perform a spacewalk), with Gui Haichao assisting the pair from inside the Tianhe core module.

Footage of the landing showed an apparent hole in the descent parachute and the capsule tumbling on impact, but the crew was unharmed.

[6] Shenzhou 16 marked Commander Jing Haipeng's fourth trip to space, a new record for a Chinese taikonaut.