TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1886 SUBJECT: Two absorption systems in GRB 030226 DATE: 03/02/26 19:39:32 GMT FROM: Jochen Greiner at MPI J. Greiner (MPE Garching), E. Guenther, S. Klose (both TLS Tautenburg), R. Schwarz (Uni. Goettingen), on behalf of the GRACE collaboration report: The afterglow of the HETE burst (H10893) GRB 030226 (Fox et al., GCN 1879; Price et al., GCN 1880) was observed with the VLT Yepun and the FORS2 spectrograph, equipped with the 300V grism on Feb. 26, beginning at 08:52 UT. The total exposure time was 15 min. In the calibrated spectrum, covering the 360-900 nm region, we clearly identify two distinct absorption-line systems of Fe II (160.8), Al II (167.1) and CIV (154.8) at redshifts z=1.962+/-0.001 and 1.986+/-0.001, improving earlier findings (Ando et al., GCN 1884). We conclude that the redshift of the burster is z=1.986+/-0.001 or larger. We are grateful for the assistence of the staff at Paranal.