  The {\it HETE-2} (hereafter \HETE) French Gamma Telescope (FREGATE) and the
Wide-field X-ray Monitor (WXM) instruments detected a short ($t_{50} = 360$
msec in the FREGATE 85-300 keV energy band), hard gamma-ray burst (GRB) that
occurred at 1578.72 SOD (00:26:18.72 UT) on 31 May 2002. The WXM flight
localization software produced a valid location in spacecraft (relative)
coordinates. However, since no on-board real-time star camera aspect was
available, an absolute localization could not be disseminated. A preliminary
localization was reported as a GCN Position Notice at 01:54:22 UT, 88 min after
the burst. Further ground analysis produced a refined localization, which can
be expressed as a 90% confidence rectangle that is 67 arcminutes in RA and 43
arcminutes in Dec (90% confidence region), centered at RA = +15$^{\rm h}$
14$^{\rm m}$ 45$^{\rm s}$, Dec = -19$^\circ$ 21\arcmin 35\arcsec (J2000). An
IPN localization of the burst was disseminated 18 hours after the GRB (Hurley
et al. 2002b). A refined IPN localization was disseminated $\approx$ 5 days
after the burst. This hexagonal-shaped localization error region is centered on
RA = 15$^{\rm h}$ 15$^{\rm m}$ 03.57$^{\rm s}$, -19$^\circ$ 24\arcmin
51.00\arcsec (J2000), and has an area of $\approx$ 22 square arcminutes (99.7%
confidence region). The prompt localization of this short, hard GRB by \HETE
and the anti-Sun pointing of the \HETE instruments, coupled with the refinement
of the localization by the IPN, has made possible rapid follow-up observations
of the burst at radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths.
