Within the next October 2008 the Indian satellite OCEANSAT-2 will be launched. This satellite is a follow-on mission to the first one which had a scatterometer and an Ocean Color Monitoring (OCM) instrument onboard both devoted to ocean investigation and applications (prediction of cyclone trajectory, fishery, coastal zone mapping, etc.). For the second mission the Italian Radio Occultation GPS receiver (ROSA) devoted to atmospheric investigation will be added to the two payloads. The ROSA payload was designed and developed for the retrieval of atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity profiles. Its performance and specifications will be described in the present paper. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) has promoted the ROSA receiver development to strengthen scientific activities as well as to provide end-user applications. In conclusion the paper highlights the radio occultation related activities in Italy targeted on the next OCEANSAT-2 space mission hosting the ROSA receiver. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.