>>From the article, the cover was popped off a week ago - well after Kepler
> had left Earth's gravity. This would put the cover into solar orbit
> rather
> than Earth orbit. While junk orbiting the Earth is starting to mount up,
> I
> suspect it is a bit early to start worrying about filling the whole of
> Earth's orbit around the Sun with debris.
>
> Barry

There was a brilliant story about just that by the late
Jim White. Became the title story of one of his collections:
"Deadly Litter".

Mike Resnick