Soyuz MS-16 was originally meant to transport the Expedition 63/64 crew to the ISS, carrying Tikhonov, Babkin and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide to the ISS. On 31 October 2019 it was announced that NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy would fly the mission instead of Hoshide, in order to make sure an American astronaut was on board the station at all times, in the face of delays with the Commercial Crew Program. These changes also meant that Soyuz MS-16's crew would make up part of Expedition 62.^[4] The expedition also marked the first time the Russian segment of the ISS has had three crew members since Expedition 50 and was one of the shortest expeditions in the program at just over two months long.

In February 2019, graphic designer and art director Jessie Bowers (Cypha) designed the Expedition 62 patch. This mission patch is the final ISS expedition insignia that bears the crew's surnames. All succeeding patches have no names in their graphics since the expedition member sizes has expanded to eleven individuals.