The evidence for the cometary origin then rapid global spread of COVID-19 through 2020 is critically reviewed. We outline why it is an alternative plausible scientific explanation to the current bat/pangolin animal jump theories. In our view this explanation is consistent with all the available temporal unfolding scientific data (genomic, immunologic, epidemiologic, geophysical, astrophysical and astrobiological). Thus COVID-19 arrived as infective cryopreserved virions in cometary meteoritic dust clouds from space in a bolide strike in the stratosphere over China on October 11 2019. Prevailing high-level and low-level wind systems then globally distributed the infective viral dust clouds, striking different regions at different times. Given this possibility, a new space challenge for mankind is to develop near- Earth early warning biological surveillance (and mitigation) systems for incoming cosmic in- falls of micro-organisms and viruses from the cometary dust and meteorite streams that our planet routinely encounters as it orbits the Sun.