Hence “quasi-canon”. But the São Paulo example is irrefutable. It’s perfectly reasonable to think it’s unlikely Starfleet would rename the Enterprise E or F and keep them in service, but it’s simply not the case that Starfleet never renames ships.
The point is that the concept of renaming ships has been around for over 35 years, and there is at least one canon example of Starfleet doing so.
The NX-01 being decommissioned after ten years was something I had a problem with, meanwhile the Enterprises C and D weren't decommissioned, they were destroyed. There's a difference. And it just doesn't make a lot of sense to decommission ships after only a decade or so of service. Modern day boats have a lifespan of fifty years, and the space shuttles have been in service much longer. By Star Trek's time, much longer. Indeed, at the risk of bringing in non-canon stuff, I believe the TNG Tech Manual indicates the Galaxy class had a life expectancy of a hundred years, meaning the Sovereign and Odyssey classes should also be comparable. To decommission a perfectly good ship which has the potential of lasting a century after only a decade and a half just seems wasteful.
The only reason the NX-01 was decommissioned after 10 years was so that the 1701 remained the first Federation starship named Enterprise.
But that's a "Human Tradition" and there is more than one UFP Member Species Naval history to integrate from. We don't know much about Vulcan, Telleraite, Andorian, and the other member species naval traditions. So renaming might be perfectly kosher. And I doubt StarFleet will be held back by "Superstition / Bad Luck" as a justification.
This is based off STO lore not season 3 lore, but still a neat watch. also shows off the new odyssey model used in season 3
The NX-01 deserves to be a museum ship as much as Voyager does. Thats enough justification in my book.
The following ships deserve to be in a museum: The 1701 The 1701-A The 1701-B The 1701-C The 1701-D The 1701-E The NX-01 The Defiant Voyager The next show will be titled "Star Trek: Museum Pieces."
Right, okay, this was maybe a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but it's just suddenly struck me that an anthology series called Star Trek: Museum delving into the histories of select museum ships would be an absolutely AMAZING idea. Framing device of the Fleet Museum in the 25th century, but we could see anything from very early immediately post-First Contact ships exploring beyond Earth's solar system for the first time right up to the unseen adventures of the newly retired Enterprise-F. All those ships we've only heard of, or merely glimpsed, or never even knew about.
Going non-canon, Starfleet museums holding all Enterprises have been depicted in the SOTL calendars, indicating life-sized replicas were used. In Star Trek Online, President Okeg oversees an exhibit that moves among major Federation world and it includes replicas of historical ships, even including the Kelvin timeline Enterprise.
In re: museums, as someone famous once said: "I must have seen this ship hundreds of times in the Smithsonian, but I was never able to touch it... For humans, touch can connect you to an object in a very personal way. It makes it seem more real." Seems like replicas wouldn't really do the same thing....