Does collecting an abandoned ship lose my old one? [duplicate]

You are able to have 6 ships in your collection. When you come across a crashed ship and claim it, it is added to your collection. Crashed ships are usually only good for scrapping. There are chances of being a good one, but damaged modules can often incur permanent penalties even after fixing.

After you claim a crashed ship, you can simply hop back into your old ship and it will "switch primary". You can also use the utility menu to summon your old ship to bring it back and go from there.

The primary use of these crashed ships to be scrapped for money and nanites. To do this, you fix just enough of the modules to get it into space and to a station. Then scrap it at the ship upgrade terminal. You can also take a teleporter to a station while this ship is your "primary"