The authors propose a nonlinear unknown input observer to estimate the angular speed of a satellite and to detect faults of reaction wheels. Input values are necessary to estimate the angular speed. Therefore, estimation errors are inevitable if faults occur in actuators or reaction wheels. Unknown input observers are useful to estimate the states of a system without being affected by unknown faults. The authors have designed a nonlinear unknown input observer by using the SDRE method and verified the proposed observer via numerical simulations. In spite of various and simultaneous faults, we have estimated the states and detected faults exactly by the proposed nonlinear unknown input observer.