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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admitted Wednesday that she made a mistake by not checking to see if the sack was tied down, and said she’s still smarting over the whole thing.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper said in an interview that it was “very disheartening” to lose her bag full of tools. She was trying to clean up grease that had oozed out of a grease gun in the backpack-size bag, when the tote and everything in it floated away Tuesday.

The bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalking astronaut.

For a split second, she thought she might be able to grab it. Just as quickly, “I thought, no, that would probably just make things worse and the best thing to do would be to just let it go.”

“It was hardest coming back in and having to face everybody else,” she said. She noted there were three more spacewalks and promised not to let the mistake happen again.

Her spacewalking partner Tuesday, Stephen Bowen, also took the blame for the mishap.

“I didn’t go back and triple-check everything. So I’m just as guilty at this as Heide is,” Bowen said.

Flight director Ginger Kerrick was withholding judgment.

“We don’t know that this incident occurred because they forgot to tether something. We don’t know if perhaps the hook just came loose inside the bag,” Kerrick stressed. “You’ve got to remember, we are working with humans here and we are prone to human error. We do the best we can, and we learn from our mistakes.”

Kerrick said precautions would be taken to help prevent any more leaking grease guns or loose bags.