Hmmm... it occurs to me that no-one has suggested SLS may stand for Slightly Less Stupid. That's a pretty reasonable engineer's joke.
The legend of Orion was first told in full in a lost work by Hesiod, probably the Astronomia; simple references to Hesiod will refer to this, unless otherwise stated. This version is known through the work of a Hellenistic author on the constellations; he gives a fairly long summary of Hesiod's discourse on Orion.[6] According to this version, Orion was likely the son of the sea-god Poseidon and Euryale,[7] daughter of Minos, King of Crete. Orion could walk on the waves because of his father; he walked to the island of Chios where he got drunk and attacked Merope,[8] daughter of Oenopion, the ruler there. In vengeance, Oenopion blinded Orion and drove him away. Orion stumbled to Lemnos where Hephaestus — the lame smith-god — had his forge. Hephaestus told his servant, Cedalion, to guide Orion to the uttermost East where Helios, the Sun, healed him; Orion carried Cedalion around on his shoulders. Orion returned to Chios to punish Oenopion, but the king hid away underground and escaped Orion's wrath. Orion's next journey took him to Crete where he hunted with the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto, and in the course of the hunt, threatened to kill every beast on Earth. Mother Earth objected and sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion. The creature succeeded, and after his death, the goddesses asked Zeus to place Orion among the constellations. Zeus consented and, as a memorial to the hero's death, added the Scorpion to the heavens as well.[9]
The margin of the Empress Eudocia's copy of the Iliad has a note summarizing a Hellenistic poet[12] who tells a different story of Orion's birth. Here the gods Zeus, Hermes and Poseidon come to visit Hyrieus of Tanagra, who roasts a whole bull for them.[13] When they offer him a favor, he asks for the birth of sons. The gods take the bull's hide and ejaculate or urinate into it[14] and bury it in the earth, then tell him to dig it up ten months[15] later. When he does, he finds Orion; this explains why Orion is earthborn.[16]
"Space Launch System" is, and should remain, the name of this launch vehicle. It is too late to pick a new name. NASA named Saturn V pretty much right at the beginning, although it was called "Saturn C-5" for the first year until early 1963. - Ed Kyle
I think in general it's a bad idea to name things after astronauts. They get all the glory, and their places in history are assured. There are many less visible but equally or more important people behind the scenes -- engineers, technicians, managers and the like -- who do not get the recognition they deserve.
Has anyone made the suggestion yet of continuing with Von Braun's reasoning. Saturn was named for the one after Jupiter. Thus we have a name for SLS. The one after Saturn. The Mighty… er… wait… Uranus?!