Impulsive vibration during rocket launch has the risk of causing indentations inside the bearings of reaction wheel mounted on a satellite. The indentations induce the vibration disturbance during the bearing rotation, which is harmful to precision equipment. In order to investigate the mechanism of the indentation formation, we carried out the experiments and finite element simulation for simplified reaction wheel. Based on the results of simulation, we estimated the depth of plastic deformation and wear using Palmgren’s formula and PV value, respectively. The indentation depth of simulation shows good agreements with that of experiment. The results also show that the wear between balls and rings is dominant factor of indentation formation, as compared with the plastic deformation. The amount of wear is greatly affected by the location of ball. In the location where the contact direction between ring and ball is parallel to the vibration direction, contact pressure contributes the wear as compared with slip velocity. Inversely, in the location where the contact direction is perpendicular to the vibration direction, the slip velocity contributes the wear and induces the larger wear region.