In 2016, following recommendations laid out in the so-called Astrophysics Roadmap of 2013, NASA established four space telescope concept studies for future Large strategic science missions.

According to the concept study's Final Report, the Lynx Design Reference Mission was intentionally optimized to enable major advances in the following three astrophysical discovery areas: Collectively, these serve as three "science pillars" that set the baseline requirements for the observatory.

Those requirements include greatly enhanced sensitivity, a sub-arcsecond point spread function stable across the telescope's field of view, and very high spectral resolution for both imaging and gratings spectroscopy.

The Lynx team markets the mission's science capabilities as "transformationally powerful, flexible, and long-lived", inspired by the spirit of NASA's Great Observatories program.

The design of the Lynx spacecraft draws heavily on heritage from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, with few moving parts and high technology readiness level elements.

The major advances in sensitivity, spatial, and spectral resolution in the Lynx Design Reference Mission are enabled by the spacecraft's payload, namely the mirror assembly and suite of three science instruments.

The Lynx GO program will have ample exposure time to achieve the objectives of its science pillars, make impacts across the astrophysical landscape, open new directions of inquiry, and produce as yet unimagined discoveries.