Yeah Freon isn't banned at all. It is just not available like it used to be. You can't go into a store and buy Freon like you could in the old days. Now you have to take your car in to the shop and have them pump the Freon into your cars A/C. (Special note you used to be able to huff Freon and get really high)

Anyway the space shuttle did quite using Freon because of budget cuts and not because of environmental reasons. The problem with Freon was that it would be handled poorly and that would lead to ozone depletion. It didn't have anything to do with the gas itself. If you go to fill up your car with Freon and spill half of it then you kill the ozone. If you do it right you don't have a problem. To help solve this they stopped the sale of it the public.

You actually might be able to still get it but it comes in special containers now so you can't spill it into the air. I'm not positive about that though. But I do know that mechanics and people who work on heating and air conditioning can still get it.